The Heirs To The Ōtsutsuki
by shinigami-shane
Summary: The teachers at the academy knowingly conspired to compromise the learning of multiple students. This leads to a shake up of both the academy's structure, and Konoha's young rookies. As well as their teams.
1. Graduation - Uzumaki Naruto

"…Next, Uzumaki Naruto," rang the voice of Umino Iruka from the adjacent room as the previous student exited, excitedly looking at the hitai-ate that he was holding in his hand, having just passed the genin exam with flying colours. As Naruto passed the student glared at him, as he had done ever since they first joined the academy, though Naruto _knew_ that he hadn't pranked him, and he did remember every one of his pranks. When Naruto was standing before him, Iruka said, "Alright Naruto, you know the drill, you need to perform the kawarimi, the henge and the Bunshin jutsu in order to pass." As Naruto got ready to perform said jutsu, Iruka thought, ' _Please get them right._ '

Mizuki though, had different thoughts. He was thinking, ' _Come on, demon, mess up. Then I can use you to acquire 'that scroll' that I've been wanting to get my hands on, and finally finish off what the Yondaime started without any consequences._ ' He said, "First off, we'll start with the henge." Mizuki thought, ' _This oughta stuff 'im,_ ' thinking of the repeated failed attempts at transforming into the Hokage that Naruto had done in the past. "For this, we'll need you to transform into Hokage-sama."

"Right," Naruto said, and made the requisite handseal before announcing, "Henge no jutsu!" and transformed perfectly into a copy of the Yondaime, although he did slightly mess up on the height, but Iruka marked it as a success as it wasn't as significant as it had been in the past, only a few centimetres rather than just wrapping the illusion around his own body.

"Okay, that's well done," Iruka said.

"No way," Mizuki said. "That wasn't an exact transformation _and_ it wasn't of Hokage-sama! How can we really pass him on that? He'd get found out immediately."

"We passed Ami, and she got the colour of the flames on the Sandaime's haori incorrect. If we are going to make exceptions for one student, we must be willing to do so for _all_ students, Mizuki. Otherwise how can we be considered impartial teachers?"

Naruto thought, ' _The hell is Mizuki-sensei's problem? Iruka-sensei is right. Hmm…I'll show him what it means if he decides that he wants to mess with Uzumaki Naruto-sama!_ '

Mizuki said, " _That_ , isn't what we asked for!" pointing at Naruto, who had yet to release his transformation.

"Well, technically we _did_ only ask for a transformation into the Hokage. We didn't specify which one, and the Yondaime _is_ still classified as a Hokage, so…"

Mizuki grunted and said, "Fine. Next up, the kawarimi."

"Alright," Naruto said with a massive grin. He made the handseals and said, "Kawarimi no jutsu." Mizuki felt a tugging sensation before, all of a sudden, he was standing in front of Iruka and an annoying blonde with a _really_ annoying grin on his face.

Iruka blinked as he witnessed the feat. He thought, 'Naruto _just…but switching with another person is a pretty advanced skill. Even more so when you consider the size difference between Naruto and Mizuki. How did he…_ ' as he looked at the blonde sitting next to him in stunned disbelief. He said, "Alright, you get a pass on that one too," and scribbled something down on the notepad that he was using."

Mizuki decided at that point to use the kawarimi jutsu on Naruto, to prove that it wasn't an ability unique to Naruto. When Naruto felt the tugging sensation he thought, ' _So, Mizuki-sensei thinks that I think that doing that is something special, does he? Too bad for him that I picked that skill up from watching Neko-san doing it._ '

"Alright, _Naruto_ ," Mizuki venomously said. "Next up is the Bunshin jutsu."

"Uhh…about that…" Naruto said, scratching the back of his head.

"What about it, Naruto?" Iruka asked in a softer tone, giving Mizuki a glare.

"Is it alright if I used another jutsu _instead_ of the Bunshin that we've been getting taught?"

Mizuki bluntly said, "If you can't use a regular Bunshin jutsu, there's no way that you'll be able to handle any _other_ jutsu. So no, you can't."

Naruto let out a huff, before Iruka said, "I'm sorry Naruto, Mizuki's reason aside, if we did that for you, then, as with your henge before, we would be setting a precedent, and would be opening up grounds for abuse from members of established shinobi clans. Please understand."

Naruto sighed and said, "Ahh-ahhh. Fine, I guess I can see your point," scratching the back of his head. He mumbled, "Stupid clans, stupid old man…" along with cursing a number of other inherent issues with how the Sandaime was running the shinobi program."

"Thanks, now…just do your best."

"Yeah, sure," Naruto said in a resigned tone. He made the handseal and said, "Bunshin no jutsu!" causing five weak-looking clones to appear around him.

Iruka sighed and said, "I'm sorry Naruto, but you know what this means."

Naruto sighed and said, "Yeah, I know," and started to slowly exit the room back the way he'd come, his shoulders slumped and his head hung, looking to the ground for something good to come his way.

Mizuki said, "Hey Iruka, why don't we let him pass."

"Mizuki-sensei…we can't. The rest of his class all produced three usable clones. Naruto may have made more, but you can hardly consider them usable, let alone make acceptable substitutes."

Mizuki said, "But this _is_ his third attempt, so it's obvious that he wants to be a ninja."

Iruka said, "We can't. If we let him through like this, then he would be little more than a liability in the field."

Unsurprisingly, it didn't raise Naruto's hopes, nor did the rest of his class jeering at him for failing to pass. He slowly made his way back to his seat before unceremoniously crossing his arms on his desk and collapsing into them, staring out the window, shutting out everything else that was happening around him as he let out a sigh, resigning himself to yet another year within these blasted walls. Because he was looking out the window, he didn't see the pale-eyed girl with blue hair staring at him with a sympathetic look on her face.

It was soon afterwards that the bell rang, signalling the end of the day's classes, and Iruka said, "Alright, that's it for the day. All of you that passed, meet back here at ten o'clock next week to get assigned to teams." After that, all of the no-longer students, and Naruto, left the class and waited outside until their parents picked them up. Naruto though, just sat on the swing, looking forlorn as his classmates got picked up by their parents, or, in some cases, their retainers. He looked up when Mizuki appeared behind him and said, "Hey, Mizuki-sensei."

Mizuki said, "Sorry about the test Naruto, I know you wanted to pass."

"Why _didn't_ Iruka-sensei let me use that other jutsu though? It's really good."

"Like he said, he wanted to, but, even for us sensei, there are rules that we have to follow. One of which, is to show fairness across all classes."

Naruto sighed and said, "I wish that applied to _me_ too."

"You're right. That's why I'm going to tell you about the alternative exam."

"There's an alternative?!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Yes. It's a lot more difficult than the one that you and the rest of your class took this afternoon though, so it's not really used that much."

"I see. So…if I take this exam, then I can become a shinobi, like the rest, right?"

"Exactly," Mizuki said, nodding once with a smile on his face.

"Alright, so what is it?"

"Hmm…I don't know if I should…it carries a lot of risk…" Mizuki said, feigning concern for Naruto's wellbeing, completely forgetting that he had only ever displayed anything but for the entire time that he had been teaching the blonde menace. "…but alright. If you _really_ want to know it. Do you?"

Naruto eagerly nodded, thinking, ' _What's going on here? Mizuki-sensei is acting different to how he normally acts._ ' He said, "Yuhuh yuhuh, yuhuh," as he nodded vigorously.

"Alright then. There's a large scroll stored in the room adjacent to the Hokage's office. You need to have stolen it, and reached a certain place outside the walls and learned a jutsu from the scroll by ten the night of the exam was taken."

' _By ten? Hmm…well, if he says so._ ' Naruto said, "Alright Mizuki-sensei. I'll do it." He then stood up with a level of determination that Mizuki didn't think that he was possible of having. He said, "I'll see you tonight," he then walked off to start planning his theft.

When Naruto got home he got out his 'prank book'. It was an unlined notebook that he had used to plan every one of his pranks. He opened it up to the page that he had drawn out the layout of the Hokage Tower. He said, "Okay, now, the last time I was there, there were guards here," and marked the place with a red 'x' in pencil, so that he could just erase it later, preventing the need to redraw the layout for the next time, if there was one. He then laid out the position of every other guard on the drawing in red pencil the same way. He also took note of the dates and times that he had placed at the top of the page. He then calculated which timing schedule would be in use since his last prank that he had staged inside the walls of the Hokage Tower.

After an hour of planning and rejigging when his current plan went awry, he was done. He grinned and said, "Right, now that that's done, it's time to start the greatest prank that I've ever pulled. But first, where did I put that paint…"

After the sun had gone down, Naruto left his apartment and slunk through the backstreets of Konoha until he reached the tallest building within sight of the front of the Hokage Tower. He then did three handseals and said, "Tajū Gen'ei Bunshin no jutsu," and two identical, physical, copies of himself appeared on either side before they jumped off, heading to the locations that the original had marked out during the planning stage. While they were on their way, the original started on the wall.

As the night ticked on, Mizuki was getting increasingly impatient, waiting for the demon brat to get on with the 'test'. He thought, ' _What the hell is that brat doing? I would've thought that he would have made his move by now. If he doesn't hurry up, then I might not get my chance to kill him and reclaim the scroll._ ' Then, he heard the explosions from all over the village and thought, ' _Is that Naruto? I figured that he'd try for a distraction, but this is even better than I could have hoped. He's finally showing his true colours! Now not even that weak old man can save him!_ ' Mizuki then got up and armed himself before racing to the Hokage's office.

When he heard the explosions, Hiruzen looked up from his paperwork and swivelled around in his seat to see the explosion across from his office. He frowned and said, " _What_ is going on? Is it Kumo again?" thinking on the shinobi that had been in his office mere hours earlier. ' _Even Ōnoki wouldn't do something so blatant._ ' He stood up as his ANBU Guards released their Meisaigakure jutsu, appearing in all four corners of the office. He said, "Go, gather the first five shinobi you come across and meet me on the roof."

"Sir," all four guards said before they disappeared via the Shunshin jutsu. Hiruzen sighed after they'd left and said, "I never thought that I'd see another war before I retire," as he put on his Kage haori. He then left to go to the rooftop, where all of the troops.

From the dark alley opposite the Hokage Tower, a blonde figure smirked, as he thought, ' _Alright, everything good so far_ ,' and moved on to stage two. Infiltration. He crept across the street and went up to the left wall of the tower. He flung a grappling hook up to the third floor and walked up the side of the building and broke the window before opening it and climbing through, completely avoiding the two first floors, which had been reinforced with the guards from the third and fourth floors. Naruto made his way through the next floor quickly. When he was about to go through to the next floor, he held himself back, looked at his watch and thought, ' _No. Not yet.'_ He then waited for another thirty seconds before opening the door and rushing into the office five meters down the hallway, just in time before the guard that he had waited for, to come back. As the guard walked past the door, Naruto reached out and slapped a tag on the man's neck, knocking him out. Naruto dragged him into the office and took a card that the man had clipped to his belt, thinking, ' _Huh, this' new. Must be a new security measure since my last time here. I suppose I should probably keep this. Could come in handy._ '

Naruto then walked into the Hokage's office itself, having done away with the only security left now that the old man was no longer on the floor. Naruto tried to open the closed door, but was unable to, until he had held the strange card up to some black box next to the door. Once he was inside, he picked the lock of the door on the left side of the office and went in. Naruto got the scroll that Mizuki had told him about and quickly ran back the way he'd come, leaving the grappling hook in the window, not only because he wanted to make a quick getaway, but because it would tell the old man the problem that his security had. Naruto then made his way through the backstreets of Konoha to the area that Mizuki had told him about.

While Naruto made his way to the meeting place, back on the rooftop of the Hokage tower, the shinobi that had been dispatched to investigate the explosions, came back. Hiruzen said, "So, who was it?"

"It wasn't an explosion, Hokage-sama," Mizuki said.

"What do you mean? Explain," Hiruzen ordered in a no-nonsense tone, that surprised the chūnin.

"It seems to have been a feint, designed to look like an explosion, but in reality was just a cloud of orange paint."

"Orange paint?" Hiruzen said, eyes narrowed. His eyes widened as he realised that it was just a distraction and his office was almost entirely empty…and undefended." He said, "Neko, Inu, come," and raced down the side of the building and into his office. To his utter dismay he said, "We've been had," seeing the door on the side of his office swinging open.

Neko said, "Hokage-sama, who…?"

"With that paint, it must have been Naruto."

A sweatdrop appeared on the side of Neko's head and she said, "Hokage-sama, I…"

"No. You had nothing to do with this. So don't even try. Naruto has always been a sly one, though I can't see how he would know about that scroll."

"Then you think that…"

"Yes. Someone is using young Naruto to get the scroll."

"But who would…"

"I don't know. But we'll need to let this play out to find out the true culprit. With that in mind, neither of you are to take part in this."

"Right," both Neko and Inu said as they followed Hiruzen back out the window that they had just entered the room through. When they were back on the rooftop, Hiruzen said, "It seems that _Naruto_ has stolen the Scroll of Sealing. Your mission is now changed to capture and retrieval. Now go," he then waved his hand through the air, dismissing his shinobi.

"Hokage-sama," every gathered shinobi said before leaping off to search for the blonde menace. As Mizuki raced from rooftop to rooftop, he thought, ' _Now I can put my plan into action. I'll tell everyone in the village what the demon did and eliminate him. They'll be_ glad _he's gone, then, of course, I keep the scroll for myself._ '

Meanwhile, Naruto had arrived at the meeting place and unfurled the scroll. He said, "Kage Bunshin? Eh, looks like my Gen'ei Bunshin, so no thanks. What's next? Oh! That looks interesting," he then grinned as he set about learning the jutsu.

A few hours later, Naruto collapse to the ground, panting. Soon afterwards, Iruka came across him, and, breathing heavily said, "It's all over," and chuckled.

Naruto pushed himself up off the ground and scratched the back of his head as he laughed and said, "Got me already, not bad Iruka-sensei. You're pretty quick, I only had time to learn one technique!"

Iruka thought, ' _He's been out here practicing. I can tell how hard he's been working.'_

Naruto opened his arms wide and said, "Hey, Iruka-sensei, listen to this. I'm gonna show you this amazing jutsu, then you're going to let me graduate, then everything will be okay. That's the way it works, right? Anyone who learns a jutsu from this scroll, passes."

"Huh? Where'd you get that idea?"

"Mizuki-sensei told me about it, believe it! He told me where to find the scroll, and this place…"

Iruka saw an image of Mizuki surrounded by a dark chakra flash in his eyes as he thought, ' _Huh? Mizuki?_ " He exclaimed, "Huh?!" As he saw a barrage of kunai flying at Naruto and said, "Look out!" and pushed him out of the way of the kunai, which mostly missed Iruka, but one managed to pierce his thigh.

Mizuki said, "So, you've managed to find out little hideaway."

"So that's the way it is, huh?" Iruka said, glaring at Mizuki, clenching one eye shut to shut out the pain. Iruka said, "I should have known," as Mizuki landed on a branch across from the shack that Iruka was resting against.

Mizuki said, "Naruto. Give me the scroll now!"

Naruto said, "Uhh…wait a minute. What's going on here?"

Iruka ripped the kunai from his thigh and said, "Naruto, _don't_ let Mizuki get the scroll! It contains forbidden jutsu that could put this village in great danger! Mizuki used you to get the scroll for himself. For his own power!"

Naruto angrily growled and glared at Mizuki, thinking, ' _Now it makes sense._ '

"Don't be ridiculous," Mizuki said. "Iruka's just trying to scare you because he doesn't want _you_ to have the scroll."

"Huh?" Naruto said, turning to look at Iruka.

Iruka said, "Stop lying Mizuki!" before turning to Naruto and saying, "don't listen to him naru…" but he wasn't allowed to finish, when Naruto scoffed. "Naruto. What…?"

Naruto ignored Iruka. "Stop bullshitting, _Mizuki_ -sensei."

"What was that? I'm _not_ lying. I'll tell you whose been lying to you. They've been lying to you your entire life, Naruto. Since the decree twelve years ago."

"What…decree?"

"Everyone knows, except you. Iruka's trying to hide it from you, even now. He'll do _anything_ to shut me up."

"What is this decree? Why does everyone else know about it?"

Iruka cried out, "Don't tell him, it's forbidden!"

"The decree is, no one can tell you that the nine tailed fox is inside _you_! The fox spirit that killed Iruka's parents and destroyed our village has taken over _your_ body! You _are_ the nine tailed fox!"

Stop itt!" Iruka yelled.

"They've all been sneaking around, hiding things from you your whole life. Didn't you think it was strange, how they treated you? Like _dirt!_ Like they hated you for just being _alive!_ _That_ is why you'll _never_ be accepted in this village. Even your _beloved_ sensei _hates_ your guts!"

While Mizuki talked, Iruka thought back on a talk that he'd had with the Hokage. He heard Hiruzen's voice saying, _"Naruto never had a mother or father to care for him. He's shut out of everything, but doesn't know why most people won't even look at him. How would_ you _feel if everywhere you went people turned their back on you?_ That's _why he gets in trouble. So people will notice him. He may not show it, but he's always thinking about the family that he doesn't have. He's hurting inside."_

"That's great and all," Naruto said, cutting through Iruka's thoughts, and Mizuki's diatribe, "but that's not how fūinjutsu works."

"What was that!?" Mizuki said, beyond outraged that the demon thought that he had the right to talk down to him.

Iruka thought, ' _What?_ Fū _injutsu? We didn't cover that at the academy. How does Naruto know about it?'_

"When a seal breaks, the object sealed is released, completely. _That_ doesn't change, no matter the object."

"What?!"

"If you _really_ believe what you just said, then you clearly haven't studied the art, Mizuki- _sensei_ ," Naruto said, turning the term of respect, into an insult. "As such, any opinion _you_ hold, can't be seen as anything other than conceit born of ignorance."

"Wha…Naruto…" Iruka said. As he looked at Naruto, thinking, ' _This Naruto isn't anything like what I've experienced at the academy,'_ remembering all of the times that Naruto had messed up with jutsu being taught, and the incorrect test scores. He was stunned when Mizuki threw a fūma shuriken at him and said, "Naruto, duck!" Naruto ignored him though, and instead flipped, planting his hand on the large shuriken as it flew under him. Iruka blinked, gobsmacked by the move, thinking it beyond Naruto's abilities, based on his taijutsu scores. He thought, ' _Was he purposefully messing around when we were practicing taijutsu in the academy?_ ' But he had to move before he could continue down that rabbit path, or the kunai that Mizuki had thrown would turn Naruto into a pincushion. Iruka jumped in the way of them as tears started to roll down his cheeks. He said,

Mizuki looked stunned as Iruka got stuck with the kunai that he had thrown. Naruto hesitantly said, "But…why?"

Iruka said, "Because…we're the sa-ame," as blood ran from his mouth. "When I lost my parents, no one seemed to care, they didn't have the time for me. They just forgot I was there. My grades dropped. I became the class clown. I just wanted them to see me, to know my name. My schoolwork wasn't good enough to gain their attention, so I did crazy things, and then I had to pay for it. It was hard. I _know_ that's how you feel, Naruto. You feel lonely and it hurts inside, and I couldn't be there for you more. I let you down, I'm sorry. No one should suffer that much. No one should be alone like that."

Mizuki started to laugh. He derisively said, "Don't make me laugh! Iruka _always_ hated you! He was orphaned because the nine tailed fox killed his parents! And that beast is inside _you!_ He'd say _anything_ to get the scroll from you!"

Naruto frowned as he thought, ' _No._ You _would, Mizuki-_ sensei. _Iruka-sensei isn't like that. If I try and fight him here, then Iruka-sensei is only going to get hurt more._ ' He then took off, running towards Konoha.

Iruka called out, "No! Narutooo!"

Mizuki chuckled darkly as he said, "You know, once he makes up his mind, nothing can change it. He's going to use the scroll to take revenge on the village. You _saw_ that look in his eye, didn't you? _Those_ are the eyes of a beast."

Iruka said, "No," as he pulled the kunai from his back. "Naruto _isn't_ like that!" as he threw the kunai at him.

Mizuki scoffed as he said, "You're a joke. As soon as I eliminate Naruto and get the scroll I'll come back for you." He then grabbed the fūma shuriken, holstered it on his back, and jumped off into the trees.

Iruka growled as he thought, ' _Like I'll let you_ ,' and pushed himself up.

Meanwhile, in the Hokage's office, Hiruzen was hovered over his crystal ball, using the Tōmegane jutsu, letting himself, Inu and Neko see exactly what was going on. He said, "This is not good. Mizuki has a big mouth. He made Naruto feel so bad. Worse than he's ever felt. He could unleash the power inside of him. If Naruto uses the power of the scroll to tamper with the seal, then the beast could come out. If that happens, I fear for us all."

Iruka appeared alongside Naruto's image and said, "Naruto, everything Mizuki said is a lie! Give me the scroll, hurry! He's coming after you to take it away!"

'Naruto', didn't buy it and jumped in close to 'Iruka' and kneed him in the stomach, forcing him off balance enough for him to fall from the trees. 'Naruto' jumped down from the branches himself, sliding to a stop opposite 'Iruka', panting for breath.

Iruka said, "It…can't…be…" and 'Naruto' took the scroll off his back and backed up to the tree behind him and fell to its base, no longer able to remain standing. As 'Iruka' said, "How did you know, Naruto?" He turned around as a cloud of smoke appeared around his body, revealing that it _wasn't_ Iruka, it was _Mizuki_.

'Naruto' grinned and chuckled before a similar cloud formed around 'Naruto', as he said, "Because _I'm_ Iruka," as the cloud cleared, revealing Iruka's form.

Mizuki looked down at Iruka and said, "You're a fool! Why are you protecting that _freak_? He's the one that wiped out your _family_!"

"I don't care _what_ you say. You're _not_ getting your hands on that scroll."

"Hah, as if _you_ could stop me! Don't you get it? Naruto is just like me!"

"How's that?"

"He wants the scroll for his own power, and his own vengeance. That's how beasts are. He'll pour all of his rage into the scroll and destroy _everything_."

"You're right," Iruka said, causing Naruto to gasp aloud from where he was hiding behind a nearby tree.

Naruto thought, ' _So it_ is _true. Iruka-sensei_ never _believed in me! He thinks I'm some…beast! Some kind of…freak!_ '

"That _is_ how beasts are." Naruto gasped again, though this one was full of hope rather than the despair of his previous one. "But that's _not_ who _Naruto_ is. He's _nothing_ like that. Naruto's one of a kind. He works hard and puts his whole heart into it. Sure he messes up sometimes, and everyone jumps on him, but his suffering only makes him stronger. _That's_ what separates him from being a beast. So you're wrong. He's nothing like the nine tailed fox. He's Uzumaki Naruto, of the village hidden in the leaves!" by this point tears of joy were streaming down Naruto's face.

"Hah, you really believe that drivel?" Mizuki scoffed as he took off his fūma shuriken. "Iruka, I _was_ going to save you for later, but I changed my mind! You're _finished_!" Mizuki yelled he threw the shuriken at Iruka from close range. As it neared Iruka though, it disappeared. And Mizuki gasped, " _What!?"_ as a spark of lightning burst in its place, before revealing a blonde brat, that should have been far away by now.

Iruka blinked as he saw Naruto standing in front of him. He said, "Naruto, that was…but how!? Even jōnin can't use the kawarimi jutsu with objects travelling at that speed!"

Naruto smirked as he took off the scroll and said, "That was nothing, Iruka-sensei."

Mizuki cut him off and said, "That wasn't bad, for a little punk."

Naruto glared at Mizuki and said, "If you _ever_ lay a hand on my sensei, I'll _kill_ you!"

"Some big words. I could _destroy_ you with a single move!"

Naruto said, "Take your best shot, fool. I'll give it back to you, a thousandfold!"

Mizuki said, "Give it your best shot! Let's see what you can do, _nine tailed fox_!"

Naruto made the hare handseal before announcing, "Tajū Gen'ei Bunshin no jutsu!" and the entire clearing was filled with clones of the orange-clad student.

From his place, slumped against the tree, Iruka thought, ' _Naruto! That jutsu! Is it from then? If that's true, then those aren't an illusion. Those are solid clones! He's mastered an_ extremely _advanced jutsu!_ '

Mizuki looked around at the orange clone army and desperately said, "Wha…uhh…what is this?!" as the clones beckoned him to come at them.

The clone army said, "If you're not comin'…"

"…Then _we'll_ come after _you_!"

Mizuki screamed out in anguish as the clones ran at him from every angle and pummelled him until he was laying on the forest floor, beaten and bloody. When he was done, Naruto chuckled and said, "Hehe, sorry, I kinda got carried away! Uh…are you okay, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka chuckled and said, "Uh…yeah…" and thought, ' _He's amazing. He wants to surpass all of the Hokage, and I'm starting to believe that he just_ might _do it._ ' He groaned and said, "Naruto, come over here for a minute. I've got something I want to give you."

"Eh?" Naruto said, before shrugging and heading over to Iruka.

"Alright, now, close your eyes."

"Eh? Why?"

"Heh, just do it, would you?"

"Well, okay?" Naruto hesitantly said, and did as requested.

He felt Iruka fumbling about his head with something and said, "Iruka sensei, how much longer?"

Iruka said, "Okay, you can open your eyes now." When Naruto opened his eyes he saw his goggles hanging in Iruka's hands and Iruka said, "Congratulations, you graduate!" Naruto didn't say a thing, just looked at Iruka in stunned disbelief. "…And to celebrate, I have a surprise. We're going out for ramen tonight!" Naruto just stood there, and Iruka said, "Uhh…Naruto?" before Naruto flung himself into him, joyously saying, "Iruka-sensei!" and laughing happily.

Iruka gasped, "Urgh! That hu-urts!" He thought, ' _Naruto, this is only the beginning, the road gets tougher, now that you're a ninja. But if I told you that, I guess it'd spoil the moment, so I'll tell you later. Over ramen._ '

XXXXXXX

A/N

Okay, that ends the canonical stuff.


	2. Monkey See, Monkey Do

About an hour later, Naruto and Iruka were standing in front of Hiruzen's desk, with a limp Mizuki on the floor before him. Hiruzen let out a smoky breath before saying, "So Naruto. Are you going to tell me where you learned those jutsu that you were using when you fought Mizuki?"

"Uhh…well…" Naruto said, playing with his collar. "You see…"

Iruka sighed and said, "I can probably answer that, Hokage-sama," cutting through Naruto's trying to dodge the matter.

"Oh? I was unaware that you knew them either Iruka," Hiruzen said, well aware that he didn't.

"I…uhh…don't. Sorry. You see, soon after I was assigned as Naruto's homeroom teacher, some of the other students in his class tricked him into going into the hills where a battle had broken out and…"

"Yes. I remember the incident." Hiruzen frowned and said, "Wait. I thought that we confiscated that kunai Naruto."

"We-ell…" Naruto said, scratching the side of his head as he chuckled. "Last night wasn't the first time that I've broken into this tower after dark."

"It's not the…" Hiruzen let out a calming sigh, more than annoyed that a child wearing bright orange could break into what should have been the most secure building in the village. He said, "Naruto."

"Yes?"

" _How_ did you know what we would do after you set off those explosions last night?"

"Well, it's not difficult."

"What do you mean?"

"No offence, but you change the security details on a regular basis. And even then, you use the same layouts all the time. So if you make a record of the different ones, it's not difficult to determine which one you are working off of, and, well…you saw what happened."

"You made a _record_ of our security layout!?" Hiruzen exclaimed, in stunned dismay that none of his guards had ever seen him do it."

"Well…yeah. I've got a layout of the ANBU barracks and library too."

"The…" Hiruzen said, but was distracted by the choked laughter coming from the two ANBU guards that were _supposed_ to be hiding in the back corners of his office, finally having proof that it was Naruto that was responsible for 'the incident' in the ANBU barracks a few years ago. He sighed and said, "Naruto. I _want_ those records."

"Sure," Naruto said, shrugging a shoulder.

"Just like that?"

Naruto said, "Well, I'm not going to have much use for them now, am I?" pointing at his hitai-ate.

"Hm. I suppose not. Now, those techniques?"

"Right! Yeah. That incident that you apparently know all about, I saw the seals that those kunoichi's were using, so I just did what they did until…well…it worked…basically."

"I see," Hiruzen said, sighing. He thought, ' _Well, at least this means that he hadn't been receiving any training from someone from outside of the village. So_ that _at least has worked. It also means that Danzō hasn't been able to get his claws into him either._ ' He asked, "Before we go on, just out of curiosity Naruto…"

"What?"

"During the test, you switched places with Mizuki."

"What of it?"

"That's a very advanced application of the technique. How did you come up with it?"

"Oh. That. Neko-san switched out with me a bunch of times when she was on guard duty."

"And that was enough for you to copy it?"

"No. I went to the area above the Hokage Faces after school and trained using one of the boulders there."

"I see. Then in that case, because the pair of you identified and captured a traitor conspiring against Konoha, I shall be awarding you the pay of an A-Rank mission, though it shall be classified as an S-Rank secret."

Naruto didn't hear the bit about classifying what they'd just done, his eyes were lit up by dollar signs as he thought. ' _With that much, I'll_ finally _be able to do_ that _! After all this time I'll_ finally _have a full_ new _set! Although, maybe I should shop around for a bit first…nah. No time for that. I'll just go to the Yellow Dragon. That weapons freak from last year said that they had some pretty good stuff there._ '

When Hiruzen asked, "Is that clear Naruto?" Naruto muttered some incoherent platitudes. Hiruzen said, "Naruto!" in a sharp tone.

"Hai!" Naruto yelped.

"You are not to tell _any_ one about this incident, or how you captured Mizuki. Am I understood?"

"Yeah. Sure thing," Naruto said.

"Good. Then in that case, you can pick up your pay for the mission at the pay office when it opens in a few hours."

"Great. Thanks a lot ol' man!" Naruto cheerily said, waving as he started to leave the office.

Before he could, Iruka called out, "Naruto! Come back to the class in a week."

"Eh? But you just passed me, didn't you?"

"Yes. But in a week all of you will be getting assigned to teams, and that's where it happens."

"Ah. Right. Sure thing," Naruto half-heartedly said, all his thoughts already on his plans for the money that he would receive in a few hours.

When Naruto was gone, Hiruzen said, "About Naruto's team."

"Yes?" Iruka said.

"I don't think that the one that you put together for him is entirely suitable."

"Why? Sasuke's marks were the best, Naruto's, the worst, and Sakura is by far the most intelligent of their class, and her abilities with chakra control mean that she'll be able to…"

"Yes. But that doesn't necessarily mean that that is the best team to put him on."

"It's _usually_ how it goes though."

"It is. However…"

"Is it Sasuke?"

"Partly, yes. But the problem, is Sakura. You are correct in that she should be able to help them. The problem, is her attitude towards her potential teammates."

"What do you mean?"

"Have you even seen how they interact?"

"…"

"…"

"Well. Sure, but with the right teacher, she should be able to get over that."

"Iruka. _That_ , isn't the role of a jōnin-sensei. Sakura will be put under Kurenai, alongside Kurama Yakumo and Aburame Shino."

"But then. What about Kiba? And Hinata? Surely she won't…"

" _She_ will be put in Sakura's place on Team Seven. Inuzuka Kiba _does_ have some potential, I'll give him that much. However, his attitude is only going to get himself, and his team, killed, and his scores are almost as bad as Naruto's."

"But Kiba's the…It's not going to go over very well with the Inuzuka if we arbitrarily hold back the heir to their clan."

"Let _me_ deal with them."

Iruka sighed and said, "Alright. Is there anything else?"

"No," Hiruzen said, "you can go."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Iruka said, bowing before he left.

When Iruka was gone, Hiruzen sighed, swivelled around in his chair and stood up to look outside. He sighed again and said, "So, what did you two think?" prompting two ANBU to appear from either corner adjacent to Hiruzen.

The silver haired nin in the dog-like mask said, "I think that you've given me hell to work with, Neko."

The purple haired ANBU wearing a mask decorated to resemble a cat, said, "My pleasure Inu, _someone_ had to."

"Well, that said, it is good to know who was responsible for 'the incident'. Did you know about that?"

"No. Well, that said, I think that we all suspected who it was."

"I'm sorry, 'incident'?" Hiruzen asked, unaware of anything untoward that occurred within his ANBU's barracks within Naruto's lifespan.

Neko sighed and said, "You remember when all the female ANBU died their hair pink?"

"Yes. I believe that it was over some pricing scheme at one of the hair dressers, wasn't it?"

"Not exactly," Neko said in a strange tone.

"Ah. Do you know _why_ he did it?"

"No. But it _did_ put a stop to the teasing that I got over my purple hair, so I had no problems with it."

"Do you think that's why?"

"No. I'd never met him before then, though I had seen him running away after some prank or another every now and then."

"Come to think of it, didn't all the male shinobi start to wear masks for a while around that ti…" Hiruzen looked at Inu. "What happened."

"Well…"

"The male ANBU's teeth got turned orange."

"Well, he did always like that colour," Hiruzen said, shaking his head. He thought, ' _Maybe it's genetic. Kushina did always like bright colours.'_

XXXXX

A few hours later, Naruto was standing in front of the Yellow Dragon, Gama-chan full to bursting with the money that he'd just received. He entered through the door and didn't even bother looking through the store's stock, heading straight to the counter, wanting to get the important stuff out of the way at the start. Anything else that he could buy would have to wait. The store owner said, "What are _you_ doing here _demon_?"

"Hey! My _name_ is Uzumaki Naruto, and don't you forget it!" Naruto announced.

"I'll call you whatever I want, _boy_. And don't _you_ forget it!" the store owner mocked.

Naruto growled, tempted to just leave and break into the store later, leave a few paint seals around the place. But he sighed and calmly said, "Well then, I guess that Tenten was lying then."

"Tenten?! How do _you_ know _her_?" The store owner demanded.

"We were in the same class together last year. We got on well together, though I wouldn't exactly have called us friends."

The store owner thought, ' _If_ Tenten _got on with him, then maybe he_ isn't _the…_ ' he sighed and said, "So, what did _she_ tell you about this store?"

"Nothing really. I just overheard her when she was ranting about some new weapon store that opened up and how their products were far infurryer to this place's."

"That would be inf _er_ ior. Also, if it was last year, then it was probably Genbu's weaponry, and she's right. Their stock _is_ of a far less quality than ours. That is why they are a heck of a lot cheaper than this store. So maybe you should try there."

"Why would I want inferior weapons?"

"That…actually _wasn't_ what I meant."

"Then…"

"I don't see how you, essentially a civilian orphan, would be able to afford _anything_ in this store."

"Oh. Right. I see. Well then, I'd say that it's a good thing that I'm not a civilian anymore," Naruto said, grinning as he pointed to his hitai-ate.

The store owner grunted and said, "So it seems." He thought, ' _What were they_ thinking _at the academy? Letting that_ thing _become a ninja?_ ' he gruffly said, "In that case, what do you want?" still wanting to get 'the demon brat' out of his store as fast as he could, before his regulars no longer were.

Naruto reached into his kunai pouch and said, "I'd like a full set of these made please," placing his takigakure style kunai down on the desk.

The store owner frowned at the item and asked, "Now where _did_ you get something like that?" yet to pick it up.

"I wish I could tell you, but ol' man Hokage just finished classifying that."

"Hiruzen did?" the store owner asked, finally picking up the kunai, satisfied that it _wasn't_ going to get him into trouble if his fingerprints were found on it. He turned it in his hands and thought, ' _This thing's the real deal alright. If I can get him to give it to me, I'll be able to add the smithing techniques of takigakure to my own, and_ that _could lead to my weapons being even better than that hack Iō._ ' He said, "Alright. I'll do it, however, there's a condition."

"A condition?"

"I get to keep _this_ ," the store owner said, hefting the kunai in his right hand.

"Keep it? Why?"

"You're probably too young to understand, but to get ahead, sometimes you need to copy someone else's work."

"Oh…I get that, believe me. But how about _this_. You can keep that until you get whatever it is you want out of it, but then, when you're done, I want it back."

"Alright. You've got yourself a deal. You can pick up your new set in about six months then."

"Six months!?" Naruto exclaimed. "That's _way_ too long! I need them by next week!"

"By next week? Don't be ridiculous. Deciphering the smithing techniques used in this will take a lot more time than _that_."

"Oh. Seriously?" Naruto asked, _very_ disappointed by what he was being told.

The store owner sighed and said, "Why do you want them so badly?"

"Well, I'm getting assigned to a team next week, and I kinda wanted a full set of new kunai to celebrate the start of my ninja career."

"Ah. I see. Well, if that's the case, then I can do a rush job using my current skills within that time, however…"

"However…" Naruto echoed.

The store owner sighed and said, "They won't be the same. _You_ especially will be able to tell the difference if you've been training with it as long as I assume you have by the state it's in."

"Why's that?"

"Because, the end result of the rushed job will be, essentially, a misshapen Konohan kunai. They weight and feel will probably be different to what you are used to, which means that you'll need to work on relearning what you can do with the new set."

"I see," Naruto said, "then in that case, I want to pay half price for the rushed job and I'll pay full price for the full set, whenever you're done making them, _and_ I'll only ever come here in the future. How does that sound?"

"Why only half?"

"I figure that that kunai should at least get me that much, shouldn't it?"

"Hmm…tell you what…"

"What?"

"I'll give you half off everything in the store for today only, on _top_ of that half on the rush-job, _but_ , you are going to have to pay for everything now. How does that sound?"

"Hmm…sure, how much is it so far?"

"Hmm…the full cost of a custom kunai order is two hundred thousand ryō, so with the rush-job being at half price, that comes to three hundred thousand ryō. Are you sure you can afford it?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine," Naruto said as he grinned in happiness at _finally_ having a full set of new kunai to his name. Naruto then made his way through the store. When he was done, he had two sets of white shinobi pants, two black shirts that had sleeves that reached past his elbows, a pair of black shinobi sandals and two orange vambraces made of hardened leather, causing him to delve into his savings to pay for everything. When he handed it over to the stunned store owner he thanked him and left the store with the clothes sealed into some scrolls that he had made a few weeks previously. As he walked through the streets he was grinning happily, as he left a store other than Ichiraku, for the first time since…well…ever.

As he left the store, the owner thought, ' _Damn! Where the heck did he get all that money from? I guess it's a good thing that he didn't want any other weapons. I would've been taking more than a slight loss._ ' Then he looked down at the kunai and thought, ' _Although, I suppose that even if I did, this kunai would_ more _than make up for it._ ' Then another customer came in and he put the kunai under the counter.

When Naruto reached the end of the street, something happened that soured his mood immediately. He saw Kato. One of his classmates who took particular joy out of his failures in the past. He turned around and tried to walk away, but Kato saw him and called out, "Hey! Naruto! _Why_ do you have _that_? Who'd you steal it from?"

"I didn't steal nothin'," Naruto said, turning around to face him.

"Then how _else_ would you explain it."

"I took a make-up exam later, after you all went home."

"Hah! Nice try! My dad's a teacher at the academy. There _is_ no other test. Now, give it to me," Kato demanded, reaching for the hitai-ate on Naruto's head.

Before he could even touch it though, Naruto grabbed his wrist and said, "Don't even _think_ about touching it," glaring at Kato.

"Hah," Kato scoffed. "Like _you_ stand a _chance_ against _me_!"

"Oh? Would you like to test that theory?"

"It's not a theory when it's true," Kato boasted. "Fine. Let's do this. Four o'clock, at the academy sparring area."

"Sure, sounds good," Naruto said, releasing Kato's hand, letting him leave.

XXXXX

When four o'clock rolled around, Naruto arrived at the field to find that not only was Kato there with his cronies, so too was hibachi and his friends, including Ami. Naruto demanded, "What the heck're _they_ doing here?"

"They're here as my witnesses so that you don't try and lie about the outcome of this fight."

"Well, okay. So long as they stay out of it, no matter what."

"Of course. After all, what would be the point?"

"True," Naruto agreed.

"Good. Then Ami, if you would like to start this?"

"Sure thing Kato," Ami said. "Hajime!"

Kato grinned and ran at Naruto and jumped a bit to put his weight behind his punch. Naruto side-stepped and brought his knee into Kato's stomach. Kato staggered back, away from Naruto, who went after him and punched Kato in the face. Well, he would have, had Kato not barely go an arm in the way to weakly redirect it to the side. Kato then dropped down and spun, trying to kick Naruto's legs out from under him, but Naruto jumped backwards, out of the range of Kato's legs. He waited while Kato stood back up. he glared at Naruto and said, "That's _it!_ " and made a handsign. He said, "Bunshin no jutsu!" splitting into five individuals circling Naruto. They all smirked at the blonde and said, " _Now_ , what are you going to do, _huh_?"

Naruto grinned and made a handseal of his own. He said, "How about this? Gen'ei Bunshin no jutsu!" and four clones appeared him, each one facing a Kato.

"What the hell!?" Kato exclaimed. "How can you make that many clones?! You failed on that jutsu in the test that we just had!"

Naruto said, "That's in the past," as he and his clones ran at their counterparts while the original dodged Naruto's deliberately wild strike.

Kato took the opportunity to bring his right leg around in a roundhouse kick. Naruto kicked at Kato's shin, bringing his kick to an abrupt end, causing him to do the splits. As he tried to get up, Naruto strode over to him and performed his own roundhouse kick into Kato's head, knocking him out.

Naruto looked at the onlookers and asked, " _Now_ are you satisfied?"

"Uhh…" was the general consensus.

"Well, if that's all," Naruto said and started to walk away.

"Hey! Wait up a sec!" Fuki yelled.

Naruto turned back and said, "Yeah, what is it, Fuki?"

"How did you just…?"

"What? Beat him?" Naruto asked, flicking his thumb at Kato's downed form.

"Well…yeah. His scores were _far_ higher than yours in both taijutsu _and_ ninjutsu. So how?"

"Well, what did you expect? They kept on putting me up against two clan fuckheads that got special treatment and outside help with their taijutsu while _I_ got the grand total of bupkiss." Naruto said, "Well then, later," waving goodbye over his shoulder as he left.

XXXXX

In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen had seen the whole thing and grunted at what he'd just seen and heard through his crystal ball. He said, "Neko, Kurokuma, excluding Iruka, I want you to round up all of the teachers that Naruto has had, as well as the present and past principals and vice principals of his time at the academy."

A kunoichi with her long purple hair in a ponytail wearing a mask with cat-like markings on it, dropped her Meisaigakure jutsu before disappearing in a shunshin. As did a man with short brown hair wearing a black mask with bear-like markings. However, unlike Neko's Shunshin, which used smoke as a distraction, his used a flash of fire.

Within the hour, all of the teachers were standing before him, minus Mizuki, who was currently being attended to by Anko's 'careful' hands, and Iruka, who Hiruzen knew was innocent of purposefully messing with students' scores. One of them said, "Uhh…why are we here, Hokage-sama?"

"I'm glad you asked," Hiruzen said. "It has recently been brought to my attention that for the past…four years or so, there has been an active effort to manipulate students' scores."

"Surely you don't mean to suggest that we've been taking bribes, because I assure you, we ha…"

"Oh no no. I would have been aware of _that_. This is _much_ worse."

"How so?"

"I'm sure that you have at least _some_ idea of what this relates to."

The ex-principal sighed and said, "I assume you are talking about the Uzumaki brat?"

Hiruzen said, "Correct Izuna-san," slowly nodding. "Well, originally anyway."

"What do you mean by that? I was only aware of…"

"So you _knew_ what was happening?" Hiruzen demanded, starting to leak his killer intent. Of course, what passed as 'starting' for a Kage, was comparable to what a mid-tier jōnin could manage. Also _far_ more than what the chūnin teachers could handle themselves, so they fell to their knees, unable to stand under the pressure. He said, " _Izuna_ , explain yourself."

"I…I…" Izuna said, struggling to think straight under Hiruzen's killer intent. Hiruzen lessened it on Izuna, but kept it up on the other teachers. Izuna sighed in relief and said, "I'm sorry, Hokage-sama. In hindsight, I should have reported what was happening to the boy to you. However, at the time I thought that the boy's teachers were justified in their actions, even if said actions were more than somewhat misguided. _That_ is the reason that I quit. I couldn't willingly work in such an environment, knowing that there was nothing that I could do to change it. But again, I was only aware of this happening in regard to Uzumaki. Who _else_ was affected?"

"Apparently, _Naruto_ was used to inflate up Sasuke and Kiba's scores." The Izuna's eyes widened, stunned that the lecturers would actively try and make a student out to be better than they were, knowing full well the dangers that that could lead to in the field. Hiruzen saw this and sighed. He said, "Well, since you quit when you saw this happening, I can't exactly place any blame on you, so you can leave," and released Izuna from his killing intent completely, letting him leave, but kept it as strong as ever on the other teachers.

"Thank you," Izuna gasped as he left the room.

When Izuna was gone, Hiruzen focused on the teachers before him and said, "Now, which of you were the taijutsu instructors for Naruto's class?" When four of the teachers had sluggishly raised their arms, the killing intent that Hiruzen had focused on them all but disappeared, letting them stand and breathe normally again. "Good. Now, _what_ do you think you've done that has warranted this meeting?"

All four shook their heads, no idea at all what their Kage was hinting at. Hiruzen sighed and said, "I see. It was just revealed to me that _all_ of you continuously placed Naruto up against the students in his class that had the greatest skills in the art of taijutsu, whilst at the same time giving the both of them extra aid in class, instead of doing as I instructed when I first established the academy and placing him up against persons of a comparable level, thereby increasing a large amount of our future shinobi's skill level and, subsequently, their chances of survival. Something that is of even _greater_ importance for a village's jinchūriki in the current shinobi world. Something that _you_ should be well aware of Kirako, given the fate of your previous team." Kirako at least had the guts to feel guilty about what she'd done.

The same couldn't be said of Hiroke,who said,"We were just doing our bit to contribute to fulfilling the Yondaime's will."

"Oh? And what would that be exactly?"

"To put an end to the demon's existence!"

"And you would do this by killing his son?" Hiruzen queried.

"Of cour…wait…what are you saying?!" Hiroke demanded.

Hiruzen nodded towards the far wall and said, "Look there. _Surely_ you can't be _that_ blind to the similarities between the two."

From her place behind the Meisaigakure, 'Neko' thought, ' _He's the son of the Yondaime? I_ had _wondered. If that's the case, then I suppose it's really not_ that _surprising that he's developed_ that _fighting style after all. Though I don't know where he gets his cheek from. From what my senpai have said, Yondaime-sama was always cool-headed and serious._ Nothing _like his son._ '

By now, every single shinobi before Hiruzen was scared stiff, looks of extreme worry on their faces. Hiruzen levelled his killer intent back on the hapless taijutsu teachers and lessened it on the _nin_ jutsu teachers. He said, "Now, what about _you_?"

The teachers of the first two years said, "We did, sir," completely depressed and resigned to whatever fate Hiruzen deigned for them. Hiruzen asked, "What about _you_?" Hiruzen asked, forcing the first two back to the ground with his killer intent.

The last one sighed and said, "I _did_ …but only because he was too far gone by the point that he got to me. I had _hoped_ that pairing him up with the top students would help him to improve rather than try and start over from the basics."

Hiruzen sighed and said, "I see. Alright. _You_ can go."

"Thank you sir!" the teacher said.

"However, you _won't_ be teaching any more students and your rank will be frozen for five years. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" The chūnin said, glad that _that_ was all that would happen to her. She then rushed from the room so that Hiruzen wouldn't have the time to change his mind.

Hiruzen turned his gaze onto the current Principal and the Vice Principal and said, "As for you pair, I find it difficult to believe that _neither_ of you were aware of what was going on."

"Well, yes," the Vice Principal said. "But I thought that it was justified, so I…" he stopped talking, no longer even able to think straight with Hiruzen bringing his full killing intent down upon the chūnin. He gasped out, "But…I…uhh…" and lost consciousness.

The Principal said, "Hiruzen! _What_ are you doing?"

"He was trying to lie to get out of this. I _suggest_ that _you_ don't do the same."

"H-hair, Hokage-sama!" the Principal said, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Now, _answer_."

"I only just received my post this last year while Iruka had charge of that class. I'm still getting the lay of the land, but form what I could tell, nothing untoward was happening."

"Alright. Since you aren't responsible for the learning of any students, your rank will be frozen for ten years, and, for that period, you will serve in your current role. You can go."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," the Principal said before dashing back through the tower as fast as he could.

As the Principal made his way through the Kage tower Hiruzen stood up and walked to the window. When he saw the principal walking away from the tower, Hiruzen turned back to the teachers on their knees before him. He let go of his killing intent, letting them all breathe easy and stand up. one of the teachers said, "Thank you, Hokage-sama," as she stood up.

Hiruzen asked, "Why are you thanking me?"

"Why am I…?"

"I never said that I'm letting you go."

"Then what're…?"

Hiruzen sighed and said, "Before I determine your fate…that is, _all_ of your fates," glancing at each of the teachers in turn. "I would like this one question answered."

"What is it?"

"Why did you think that it was alright to disobey your orders and abandon your duty to the village?"

"Why did we…?" the female chūnin said, biting her lower lip as a look of great concern crept onto her face, only now realising _exactly_ what kind of predicament she and her colleagues had created for themselves. She said, "I didn't think I was."

"Why is that?" Hiruzen asked as one of the woman's colleagues said her name in a warning manner.

"Well…I don't know about my colleagues, but _I_ was told to ignore him, so I did."

"I see. _Who_ told you to ignore him?"

"It was Vice Principal Tanaka."

"I see," Hiruzen said. "All of you are hereby removed from your positions as teachers at the academy and all bar you, Makoto, will be demoted to genin."

"To genin!?" some of Makoto's colleagues exclaimed. "Now hang on! You can't just…"

" _I_ am Hokage." Hiruzen flared his chakra, belying his calm tone. "This is _my_ village, and _you_ serve under _my_ command. No one else's, Satoru." He paused to let his words sink in, not that they should have needed to be said at all. Hiruzen said, "You will _not_ be restricted to the missions of genin, but you _will_ receive the pay of one. Also, none of you will reach a higher rank for at _least_ ten years, or until such time as the Hokage deems that you have repented for your crimes."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," all of the teachers said before turning to leave, each of them glad that they were getting the shinobi equivalent of a slap on the wrist for their actions.

"I wasn't _finished_!" Hiruzen said, annoyed at the disrespect that was being displayed. " _None_ of you will _ever_ participate in a Chūnin Exam again." Hiruzen savoured the looks of stunned dismay on the now genin's faces as they realised that their prospects of advancement now rested solely on the reigning Kage. He said, " _Now_ , you are free to go and return your flak vests to the armoury on the second floor."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the genin said in a far more subdued tone.

One of the genin hesitantly said, "Uhh…"

"What is it, Kazuo?"

"What about weapons?"

"You can keep them."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Kazuo said, in a relief-laden tone as almost all of his ninjutsu techniques relied on the presence of a weapon other than the standard kunai and shuriken available to most genin.


	3. Team 7, Friend Or Foe

An uneventful week later, well, excluding that bit where he'd met some bratty kid named Konohamaru, Naruto was sitting next to the window in the classroom that he'd spent the last year trying to get out of, gazing out the window, completely uninterested when the two class fangirls burst through the door and rushed to sit next to 'Sasuke', and he rolled his eyes as the blue haired boy promptly ignored them and they shrieked about how 'cool' it made him.

When Naruto let out a bored sigh, Ino and Sakura glared at him and Sakura growled, "Narutooo!"

Naruto said, "What is it Sakura? I don't remember saying anything."

"You didn't have to!"

"Oh?" Naruto said, raising an eyebrow as Ino looked at her pink haired not-friend askance.

"You just insulted Sasuke, didn't you?"

"No. although, come to think of it, what _do_ you see in this lime-haired freak?" Naruto asked as he tapped Sasuke on his head.

Ino asked, "What do you _mean_ 'lime-haired'?! Sasuke has _blu_ …!?" and her eyes widened to epic proportions as she saw Sasuke's hair to turn lime green from the roots and extending to just before the tips.

Sasuke himself glared at the blonde for daring to touch _him_ , the last Uchiha, with his low-born fingers. Flames surrounded Sakura as she ordered, "You turn Sasuke's hair back, NOW!"

"Why would I do that, exactly?" Naruto asked as he exaggeratedly mimed as if his ears had been hurt by her yelling.

"Because, his blue hair's so distinguished, not that freaky lime green!"

Sasuke thought, ' _What are they…?_ ' and lifted a lock of his hair so that he could see it and he got pissed. Royally. He shot up, out of his seat and grabbed the collar of Naruto's shirt and demanded, " _What_ did you _do, Dobe_?"

By this time, almost all of the boys, and the non-fangirls of the class, were laughing at what was happening, even Kato and his cronies. 'Luckily', Iruka came in at that point and said, "ALRIGHT!" his head doubling in size. " _What_ is goin…" then he saw Sasuke's hair and sighed. He said, "Sasuke, I understand if you want to celebrate your graduation, but please, do it _after_ you don't have to come here anymore. Until then, you _are_ still classified as a student here, so you'll need to come back to see me when classes are done for the day," causing the class to burst out in laughter as Sasuke tried to sink into his chair, trying to hide without the use of a jutsu, not that it would have been particularly helpful, even if he had. Iruka sighed and said, " _O_ k _ay!_ " quickly quieting the class again. He said, "Now, as you know…

INSERT IRUKA'S SPEECH HERE

"…Team seven will be Uzumaki Naruto," causing Naruto to start paying attention again. "Hyūga Hinata." Hinata's face turned bright red and she fainted, joyous at getting placed on the same team as Naruto. "And Sasuke Uchiha."

The announcement of the formation of Team Seven elicited _many_ disappointed groans and sighs, as well as some anger-laden epithets directed at the fact that it was the Hyūga princess that got to be with her heart's desire, completely ignoring the fact that had _they_ been put on the same team, the situation would be exactly the same, or, possibly, even worse.

Sasuke though, had the most severe reaction and demanded, "Why am _I_ on the same team as _him_!?" pointing at Naruto in the seat in front of him.

Iruka blinked as he looked at Sasuke. He said, "Sasuke?"

"I can understand putting Hinata on the same team as I am, but _surely_ there is someone more worthy…or even just _better_ , to put on my team!"

Iruka said, " _Sasuke._ I know it might be hard for you to hear," looking directly at Sasuke. "…or for more than a few here…" Iruka's gaze flickered over just about every girl in the class. "…but the world _doesn't_ revolve around _you_. I would _suggest_ that it might be a good time for you to pull your head in. _Before_ someone does it for you." As he talked, Iruka thought, ' _How did we miss_ this _? Maybe we were too lenient on him after that incident. Well, no matter now. It's not up to_ us _anymore._ Hopefully _, whoever Hokage-sama has arranged for them will be able to cure him of that attitude. In any case…'_ Iruka said, "Team Eight will be Sakura, Shino…and another person from outside the class. You will be working under this other person's current sensei. Team Nine is currently in rotation, Team Ten, Shikamaru, Ino, Chōji…"

By the time he was done, there was still one student left; Kiba, who yelled, "HEY! Iruka-sensei! What about _me_?!"

Iruka sighed and said, "I'm sorry Kiba, but _you_ will being kept back for another year."

" _What!_?" Kiba exclaimed. " _Why?_ If _Naruto_ of all of us, is getting put on a team, then _why_ aren't _I_?!"

Iruka sighed and said, " _Kiba. Those_ are the teams. You can all go now and come back in an hour. Your sensei's will be here to pick you up. Kiba, you can join your class next week. That will be all."

Iruka then closed the folder that he had opened with all the teams listed in it and walked from the room so that he wouldn't have to deal with any more of…well…whatever had been going on before he got there.

XXXXX

Two and a half hours later, all of the teams had left, with the sole exception being Team Seven. Their sensei was late. Very, _very_ , late. So late that even Hinata was starting to get annoyed. Luckily, before any of the genin had the chance to pull some stunt, Kakashi arrived. But he didn't even bother to fully enter the room. He just poked his head around the door frame and said, "Right. The three of you, meet me on the roof in five minutes. The three genin grouchily got up, out of their chairs and walked as slowly as they could up to the roof, making sure that they took the long route.

As he waited for his students, Kakashi thought, ' _what_ is _taking them so long?'_ taking note of the fact that it had already taken them half an hour and they _still_ weren't on the roof with him. When they got to the roof (eventually), Kakashi said, "Where _did_ you go that it took you this long to get here? It _should_ have only taken about two minutes _at most_ for a ninja."

Sasuke testily said, "Like you're one to talk."

Hinata fumbled with her fingers as she looked at the ground, having tried to talk her teammates out of their plan.

Naruto said, "Sorry sensei, we got lost down memory lane. Where were you for the previous _two_ and a half hours?"

"Well, I _was_ on my way, but I saw a black cat and was so stunned that I stumbled backwards into a little old lady carrying her groceries home, knocking the bags from her hands and causing them to go everywhere. So, like any good ninja, I did the right thing and offered to repay her for everything. She refused and dragged me back to the store and had me but everything once again _and_ help her carry them to her house. When _that_ was done, I was hurrying here and came across a cart that was missing a wheel, so I…"

Sasuke grunted and said, " _Alright_ , you don't want to tell us, we get it. What _did_ you want us up here for?"

"Well, we're going to be together for a while, so I thought that it would be a good idea to get to know each other a bit first. I think that _you_ should go first, Sasuke."

"Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Just some basic stuff will do. Your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams and goals. That kind of thing."

"Fine. Uchiha Sasuke. I don't particularly _like_ anything, though there _are_ a lot of things that I _dis_ like. I don't have any hobbies and my dream isn't a dream, or a goal, since I _will_ make it a reality. I will hunt down and _kill_ a certain man and revive the great and noble Uchiha clan."

Kakashi thought, ' _So, revenge, is it? I thought so.'_ He said, alright, how about _you_ , Hinata-chan?"

"M…mm…my name…is Hinata…Hyūga Hinata. I like…medicinal studies…and…training…though I'm not very good. I…dislike…people who look down on others for things that they have no control over. A…hobby…of mine…is flower arranging…and…" Hinata gasped and her face turned bright red as she thought, 'No _! I_ can't _tell them that my favourite hobby is stalking Naruto-kun!_ ' She said, "M…mm…my d…dre…dream is…is…is to be as…strong as father…and as…kind…as my mother…and…" Hinata blushed as she looked out of the side of her eyes at Naruto, but didn't say anything more, far too embarrassed to consider doing so.

As Hinata spoke, Kakashi thought, ' _So, a Hyūga wants to be a medic-nin? Or…maybe not if she wants to be as strong as Hiashi. But how is she going to resolve that confliction with wanting to be as kind as Hidamari was?_ ' He sighed and said, "You May not be able to achieve both, Hinata."

Hinata got a sad look on her face and she said, "I know. I am more than aware of the contradiction. As is everyone _else_ in my family."

Kakashi frowned as he thought, ' _So_ that _is how she came to be in the academy.'_ He sighed. ' _Hiashi, just what the hell did you do?_ ' He said, "Alright. Naruto, you're up next."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I like Ichiraku Ramen and instant ramen, though I don't like the three minutes that it takes to make it! Oh! I like training too…and Neko-neechan. My dream, is to become the Hokage, and stronger than any that came before me. then everyone will _have_ to recognise me and show respect!"

Kakashi thought, ' _Oh. He's grown up in a_ very _interesting way. It's almost too bad.'_ He said, "Well, that's good. You're all individuals and have your own goals and beliefs."

"So, what's next?" Naruto asked.

" _Next_ , I get to test you."

" _Test_ us?!" Naruto testily said.

Sasuke said, "I thought that we'd left all that rubbish behind when we graduated."

"Yes, well that was to see if you had the _potential_ to become genin. _My_ test is to see if you actually have what it takes."

"What? Don't be ridiculous!" Sasuke said. "I come from the battle-oriented Uchiha Clan. It should go without saying that I 'have what it takes'!"

Naruto grunted and frowned before saying, "Actually…I just thought of something _else_ that I don't like."

"Oh. What would that be, Naruto?" Kakashi asked having a _very_ good idea of what it would be.

Kakashi wasn't surprised when Naruto said, "Stuck up bastards with duck-butt hair that think that they are all that just because they got outside help."

"What was that?" Sasuke snapped.

"Oh puh-lease," Naruto said. "Despite your pretensions, you are just a spoilt brat who doesn't know what it means to truly struggle, _or_ what it takes to _earn_ something."

"You looking for a fight?"

"Do you _really_ want that, mister number one?" Naruto asked.

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?"

"What _would_ it do for your reputation when you lost to me? The one with the lowest scores in the class."

"Hn, _that_ isn't possible."

"You won't know _that_ unless you try, you brat," Naruto said, looking down his nose at Sasuke.

Sasuke shot up, but, before he could do anything, Kakashi put his hand between them and said, "Alright, that's about enough of that. If you pair want to fight, meet me tomorrow at Training Ground Seven. _That_ is where your final test will take place. It'll begin at Seven o'clock tomorrow morning, so I _suggest_ that you get there early." Kakashi then smiled at them…or rather, they assumed he did, because all they could see was his right eye. He waved goodbye before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

When Kakashi disappeared, Naruto thought, ' _Was that Kage Bunshin? That scroll from last week said something about a cloud of smoke appearing when they were destroyed. I guess I'll just have to ask him tomorrow._ ' He said, "Well, I'll be seeing you pair tomorrow," and waved goodbye as he walked towards the door that would lead him through the academy, heading to Ichiraku Ramen for a late lunch.

Sasuke grumbled as he made his way to the taijutsu training area and set up a sparring dummy, figuring that there was no need to waste _all_ of his day and set to working off at least _some_ of his anger towards Naruto.

On her part, Hinata made her way through the academy, slower than either of her male teammates, thinking over what just happened. She sighed when she got outside and slowly made her way home. When she got home, she went to her father's office and quietly knocked on the closed door, not wanting to interrupt him, should he be doing something important. He wasn't. Hiashi called out, "Come in."

Hinata went in and said, "Hello, father," in a somewhat distant, but still nervous tone.

"What do you want?"

"I was placed on a team just now."

"Who are you with?"

"Uchiha Sasuke-san and Naruto-kun."

Hiashi thought, ' _Naruto? Minato's kid? What the hell does Hiruzen think he's doing, putting_ those _two on a team together?_ ' he said, "I see," and his gaze returned to the papers that he'd been working on before Hinata entered. When his daughter didn't leave, he demanded, "Is there anything _else_?"

"Well.." Hinata said, biting her bottom lip.

Hiashi said, "If it's not important, then there's the door," pointing at the door that Hinata had entered through.

"I'm sorry father, it's just…"

Hiashi sighed and said, "Just tell me what the problem is," in an exasperated tone.

"It's about Naruto-kun and Sasuke-san."

"What about them?" Hiashi asked in a tone that Hinata had never heard from her father. It sounded almost…desperate?"

' _No,_ ' Hinata thought, ' _It wasn't desperate…I don't know_ how _to describe it.'_ But she sighed and said, "Sasuke-san brought up the fact that he was an Uchiha when Hatake Kakashi-sensei told us that he would be testing our skills tomorrow."

Hiashi sighed and asked, "What did Naruto do," in a resigned tone.

"He verbally attacked…almost everything about Sasuke-san. From his family, to his choice in hairstyle. Then he called him a selfish child."

"Were those his words?"

"…not exactly."

Hiashi sighed and said, "I figured."

"Why is that?"

"Uzumaki…tend to have short tempers…and the unfortunate ability to get right to the heart of whatever they have a problem with at the time."

"Uzumaki? Are they a clan?"

Hiashi sighed and said, "They _were_ , but not for a very long time now."

"Wh…wh…what hap…pened?" Hinata asked, her stutter returning full-force now that she and her father were talking about Naruto.

Hiashi sighed as his eldest's stutter returned. He said, "The Uzumaki were targeted during the second Great Shinobi War for a number of reasons. The least of which was their complete lack of an ability to tolerate what they perceived as an insult. Something that young Naruto seems to have inherited a great deal of if the number of complaints the Village Council has received is any indication. The rest is their immense levels of chakra and their abilities with fūinjutsu, as well as their ability to shrug off injuries that would normally take days or even _weeks_ for a 'normal' shinobi to heal from." Hiashi sighed. "If I'm being honest, even a fully trained Hyūga would be hard pressed to completely shut down even a half-trained Uzumaki."

"I…didn't know."

"No," Hiashi said., "I'm not surprised. The Uchiha on the council, along with their allies at the time passed a bill prohibiting the teaching of anything even _remotely_ related to _that_ clan within the academy."

"Then…how do _you_ know all this?" Ah! I'm sorry," Hinata said, horrified at questioning her father, the leader of her clan.

Hiashi sighed and said, "All of _that_ is in some of the scrolls on the fifth sub-basement of our clan's library."

"The…but…there are only…four levels below ground…isn't there?"

Hiashi smiled and said, "Why don't you go and try to find it yourself?"

"But…only members of chūnin and above skill in jūken are able to…"

"Here," Hiashi said and tossed a pin over to his daughter that was in the shape of a tiger lily. He said, "That will grant you access."

Hinata said, "This is…"

Hiashi nodded and said, "Your mother's. Yes. She wanted to give it to you when you were ready."

"When I was…ready? For what?"

Hiashi sighed and said, "Who knows. I certainly don't. but _her_ mother gave it to her when she first went down there, so I figure that now is as good a time as any for you to see it."

"I see…" Hinata said as she got up out of her chair. Hiashi saw her fight a desire to do something, but eventually she sighed and settled for bowing and saying, "Thank you, father," and walked from the room before making her way to the clan library.

XXXXX

When Hinata got to the library, the desk clerk said, "Oh, you're back," in a detached tone."

"Yes," Hinata said in a slightly warmer tone.

"Which level is it today?"

"Father has granted me access to the fifth floor."

"He's… _seriously?!_ " the clerk exclaimed, completely losing all of her Hyūga-bred composure, her eyes widening in shock. The clerk said, "I don't belie…! Wait…" as she noticed the pin that Hinata had attached to her thick coat. She frowned and thought, ' _If Hiashi-sama gave her_ that _, then maybe she really_ is _telling the truth._ ' She sighed and asked, "Do you know what that pin is for?"

"No. father only told me that my mother got it from hers."

"I see," the clerk said. "I'm not surprised. It is a secret passed on through your mother's line."

"Do _you_ know what it is, oba-san?"

"I'm afraid not," Hinata's aunt said, the aloofness now completely banished from her voice. "Only nee-chan was told what it was for. All I know is that it's not really what it is."

"It's not…what it is?"

The clerk sighed and said, "Even _I_ don't know what _that_ means. That's all I could get from my mother before _she_ passed after nee-chan did." Both Hyūga kunoichi sighed and the clerk said, "Come on, I'll take you down there."

"Father said that I should find it myself."

"Oh? Well, alright then," Hinata's aunt said, smiling. "I'll see you on your way back then."

"Hai," Hinata said, nodding as she went down the stairs to the lower floors.

XXXXX

That afternoon, the door to Hiruzen's office got blown off of its hinges. He looked up at the noise and sighed. He said, "Tsume."

" _Hiruzen!_ " Tsume angrily said.

"I was wondering when you'd be here."

"I want an explanation. And it had _better_ be a good one. Or…"

"Or _what_?" Hiruzen asked, a dangerous look in his eyes that Tsume hadn't seen…well…ever.

"The Inuzuka have _many_ allies on the council. Enough to make trouble when it comes to time to pass new legislation, or make changes to certain curriculums."

Hiruzen sighed and said, "I don't know what you've heard. So let's start there." He pointed at a chair and said, "Please, take a seat, this could take a while."

"Alright," Tsume said, dragging the seat over, setting it down in front of the Sandaime Hokage. When she was sitting down, she crossed her arms and glared at Hiruzen. "Now, speak."

Hiruzen sighed and said, "Tsume. I am not one of your clansmen. You _will_ treat me with the proper respect," his killer intent making itself known.

This caused Tsume to start sweating, focusing on concentrating hard enough on her anger to stay in control of herself. Eventually, when her concentration was failing, she said, "Sor…ry…I…will…" and gasped in relief when the onslaught came to a stop.

"Good. Now, what is your greatest problem with this situation?"

"Kiba got held back, after passing."

"Ah. Well, it would appear that the lecturers used Naruto to falsely prop up his scores in taijutsu. Now, here," Hiruzen said, pushing some papers towards Tsume on his desk. Tsume got up and picked the papers off the table and started reading through them. As she did, Hiruzen said, "Since that was the case, I chose to let Naruto, an orphan, who achieved similar grades to Kiba, a clan heir, in all of the other areas graduate in place of your son. I understand that it can easily be taken as an insult towards your clan, however I need to think on what is best for _all_ of Konoha, not the sensibilities of one clan."

Tsume sighed and said, "Alright. I get that they had similar grades, but if that de…uhrk… _Naruto_ …" Tsume changed when Hiruzen's eyes narrowed. "...had similar scores, then why isn't _he_ being held back too?"

"Because, he achieved those scores, despite _multiple_ lecturers actively working together to sabotage his growth as a shinobi."

"Surely any sabotage would have been negated the next year?"

"It happened _every_ year. That is why the curriculum changes that you were trying to hold over my head are absolutely necessary." Hiruzen sighed and said, "I probably shouldn't mention this, but they are also going to serve as a way to put a stop to the clans' domination of the academy system."

Tsume raised an eyebrow and said, "Oh? Well, I've got to say, it's about damn time."

"Excuse me?"

"No offence, but the way you set it up, led to a large amount of the problems with the Uchiha clan."

Hiruzen sighed and said, "I suppose that you might have a point there."

"What do you mean 'might'? _Every_ year that there was an Uchiha graduating, _they_ got top place…well…with the sole exclusion being Kakashi's year."

"Hiruzen sighed and said, "I suppose you might have a point there."

"Just one more thing before I go…"

"What's that?"

"Sasuke. According to this report, Naruto was being used to prop up _his_ scores too."

Hiruzen sighed and said, "I know. But his scores in the ninjutsu section were by far the best in the class. I _am_ aware that he was getting outside help with them too, but the fact remains that he _did_ pass the tests on his own merit, even if, all things being equal, his scores would have been less impressive. Also, as you are aware, there are…pressures…being placed upon not only me, but the lecturers at the academy to aid Sasuke's growth as a shinobi. Both in the hope that it will make him more loyal than his brother was, and _because_ he's an Uchiha." Hiruzen frowned at that.

Tsume sighed and said, "Yeah," knowing who some of the perpetrators of those pressures were.

"Besides," Hiruzen grinned. "He's going to be getting a rude awakening tomorrow."

"Oh? How's that?"

"Kakashi is Sasuke's jōnin instructor, and he's on a team with Naruto and Hinata."

"Oh? The Hyūga heiress? Why? I thought that it was usually the 'top' kunoichi that got put on that team."

"Yes, well…this time is…different."

"How so?"

" _Naruto_ has more than some of the latent traditional traits of the Uzumaki, and _Sasuke_ has inherited every trait of the Uchiha clan that irritates those from the Uzumaki. I'm sure you can imagine that having a kunoichi on their team that is _completely_ devoted to Sasuke, and dismisses everything about Naruto, including his ideas, out of hand, isn't a good thing. Even more so a jinchūriki."

"Okay, I can see that. But by all accounts, Hinata is no different, just the other way around."

"That's not right. Young Hinata _is_ certainly devoted to Naruto. Of _that_ there is little doubt. However, she just doesn't care enough to hold any intense emotions towards Sasuke. That means that she will be able to work together with them both _far_ better than Sakura or Ino would."

Tsume sighed and said, "Alright. I guess I can see that. Just one thing before I leave."

"Alright."

"Why did you bring up his status as a jinchūriki?"

"Ah. That…doesn't really matter."

" _Yes_ , it does."

Hiruzen sighed and said, "The Uzumaki were seal masters. There is no doubting that."

"True, but what's your point?"

"Almost all of their advanced fūinjutsu possessed emotional components to them. Especially when it came to chakra seals."

"A…" Tsume sighed. "Alright. Thank you for clearing this whole mess up." Tsume then stood and nodded as she said, "Hokage-sama," and left.

Hiruzen nodded at Tsume in return, and said, "I'll see you at the next council meeting."

XXXXXXX

 **A/N**

 **Definitions**

 _Hidamari Hyūga_ : Exposure to the sun – keeps in line with the naming of the other Hyūga females in Hinata's family.

 **Answers to Reviews**

 _Guest_ : There is next to no difference between Gen'ei Bunshin and Kage Bunshin. The only really identifiable difference is that there will never be any memory transferring ability. THAT was an 'asspull' if ever I saw one.


	4. Pass or Fail: Survival Test

The next day Naruto rocked up to the meeting fifteen minutes early. Hinata herself was already there and greeted him with her almost ever-present stutter. Sasuke got there five minutes later. Naruto nodded to him and said, "Hey, teme."

"Hn, dobe," Sasuke haughtily said. then he blinked when he saw what Naruto was wearing. And said, "What happened?"

"Huh?"

Hinata said, "I…think…Sasuke-san…is talking about…your clothes." All the while, Hinata was blushing madly, _highly_ appreciative of his new look.

He was wearing the white shinobi pants that he bought at the Yellow Dragon and had a bandage wrapped around his right leg, protecting his skin against the rubbing of the kunai pouch on top of it. The ends of the legs were wrapped in bandages too, which reached past the top of his black shinobi sandals. He was wearing the black shirt that reached just past his elbows. He was also wearing the armguards.

Naruto said, "Yeah, well I was sick of having a bullseye painted on my back and got a sudden influx of cash last week. I also…hey, where do you get your kunai, Sasuke?"

"Hn, you think I'm going to tell you that after yesterday? As far as I'm concerned, you can keep on getting yours at whatever market stall you get them at."

"Geez, I'm not sure how that guy at the Yellow Dragon Weapons Store would take you comparing his work to that of a market stall peddler."

Sasuke thought, ' _The Yellow Dragon? It must have been quite a bit more than 'a sudden influx','_ figuring that the clothes and armour must have come from there too. He said, "Then why do you want to know where I get mine? The Yellow Dragon is one of the premiere weapon stores in Konoha. Their works should be satisfactory."

"Yeah. He was bragging about that. I just figured that you would be better able to judge the quality of what he's made for me."

"You've bought kunai before. You should be able to do _that_ yourself."

"Yeah, but I've only ever been given bottom of the barrel stuff, and since you're part of the Uchiha clan, who are reputed to have some pretty good skill in shurikenjutsu…"

Sasuke sighed and said, "Fine. Hand one over. I'll tell you what I think."

"Actually…can I see one of yours too?"

Sasuke shrugged and said, "Sure, whatever," and took one of his out at the same time as Naruto. They handed them over to each other and Sasuke and Hinata's eyes widened as they both thought, ' _That/This kunai, it's…'_ Sasuke frowned and said, "Alright, where did you _really_ get this, Naruto?"

"I told you. It was a custom order that I put in at the Yellow Dragon Weapons Store."

"There's no _way_ that's the case!" Sasuke said.

"I _assure_ you, it is," Naruto said, getting annoyed at the continuous questioning of his honesty. He flipped the kunai in his hands and tapped the handle with his index and middle fingers and his thumb. He whispered something as he did before flipping it around and holding it out with the handle pointing towards Sasuke. He said, "So, where'd you get it?" noting that the quality was superior to his own, but figured that it was had something to do with the fact that the techniques that the smithy used were different to those that his previous kunai was, so there were some…deficiencies that made their way into the work.

"It's a supplier that the Uchiha Clan has always used. And that guy that you were talking to was right. It is of a high quality. Although…"

"Althouugh…"

Sasuke tossed Naruto's kunai in the air so that it would flip and then caught it at an odd angle. He thought, ' _This kunai… it's balance is off. It's obvious why._ ' And looked at the spike that was extending out from the base of the handle. He said, "Trust you to come up with the idea of switching to a weapon that you can't use right before the most important fight of our lives."

Hinata said, "Sasuke…-san…Naruto-kun…wouldn't…"

"Hah, don't bother with him Hinata," Naruto said, returning his kunai to its new, specially made holster that had an insert crafted into it for the spikes. He had also taken the time the previous day to mark it with a mass-release storage seal so that he could quickly resupply if her ran out, though at the moment, they were only holding some rather inferior, normal, kunai that he got from Genbu Armoury on short notice. When it got to be seven thirty, Naruto yawned and stretched widely, before saying, "Well, if Kakashi-sensei isn't going to turn up…" as he walked over to one of the large trees. "…then I'm gonna get some shuteye," And closed his eyes after slipping down the trunk of the tree.

As he did, Hinata said, "Umm…Naruto-kun…maybe you shouldn't…" while also trying to sink into herself.

"Why not? He's not here, so there's no real reason for _us_ to be either, right?"

"Well…maybe…but…well…he is out jōnin-sensei…so…we should…do as he says…I think."

"I _am_ here. It's just that my mind won't be," Naruto said and leaned back and spend the next three hours dreaming of bowls of ramen growing arms and legs and doing the cha-cha," prompting a discussion that greatly disturbed the two dōjutsu wielders about what 'the dobe' and 'Naruto-kun' was dreaming about.

Unbeknownst to either of the genin that were _actually_ awake, Kakashi had been watching them for the better part of an hour and was thinking, ' _He can't_ really _be asleep, can he?_ ' So he crept closer until he could actually make out a bubble coming from his nose. ' _He_ is _asleep! Well, he's certainly got some never, sleeping on the job like that!_ ' He threw a kunai aimed at the bubble that soared between Sasuke and Hinata, who just stared at it as it passed on its way to Naruto.

When it burst through the bubble, Naruto woke up, seeing the handle of the kunai flying in front of him, frowned, reached out to catch it and threw it back at the source. He stoodu p and said, "That's a hell of a way to wake a guy up, Inu," using Kakashi's ANBU moniker.

Hinata saw Kakashi walking towards them, twirling the kunai by its ring pommel. He said, "How _did_ you know it was me?"

"How many shinobi around here have silver hair?" Naruto questioned.

"A fair point I suppose," Kakashi admitted. "But from now on, how about you _don't_ refer to me by that name, hey?"

"Eh, sure, whatever," Naruto agreed, not really caring that much.

At the exchange, Sasuke thought, ' _Inu? Dog? Don't ANBU use animal code names? Was this guy a...?! if that's so, then any 'survival exercise that he puts us through is going to be brutal.'_ He said, "Why are you late _again_?"

"You see, I…"

"I don't care," Naruto said. "It's just going to be another unbelievable lie."

"I'm shocked Naruto, that you would think that I would…"

"Go on, tell me I'm wrong then," Naruto dared.

Kakashi just shrugged and said, "Moving on…"

Sasuke and Hinata both thought, ' _He_ was _going to lie about it!_ '

"…your test, is this," Kakashi said, producing two bells.

"It's…bells?" Hinata asked.

"Quit screwing around," Sasuke snapped.

"All you need is to get one bell and you're on the team," Kakashi explained.

"But…there is…only two…bells," Hinata said.

"That's right," Kakashi said with a (eye) smile.

"You see, this year there has been a change in the formation of teams and there's going to be only two to a team, so the Hokage has asked all of the jōnin to 'select' two students to become genin."

" _What!?_ " Sasuke demanded as he thought, ' _Only two to a team?_ ' and glanced at his teammates. ' _I don't want to be on a team with either one of_ them _._ ' He asked, "What happens to the third?"

"I'm glad you asked Sasuke," Kakashi said. "The one that is left out gets sent back to the academy for another year."

'Back _to the_ academy _! There's no_ way _I could live with the embarrassment!_ ' Sasuke desperately thought. ' _There's no_ way _I'm_ not _getting one of those bells!_ '

Hinata was biting her lower lip as she thought, ' _Maybe I should give up now. After all, Naruto-kun and Sasuke-san want this more than me…and it's not like father doesn't already know I'm a failure, so…_ '

Hinata was about to give voice to her thoughts when Naruto's voice brought her out of it. He said, "The hell with that! I don't care _who_ you think you are! I'm becoming a shinobi no matter what! If I get to take _you_ down in the process, that makes it all the sweeter!"

Kakashi said, " _I_ am the rules. _So_ …" and started to tie the bells to his belt. "…come at me like you want to kill me. Otherwise you won't be able to get a bell."

Naruto wasted no time in grabbing a kunai from his kunai pouch and jumped at Kakashi, swiping at his neck. Kakashi grabbed the arm holding the blade and twisted it, turning Naruto around and holding him in place. He said, "Why are you attacking? I haven't even said start yet." He paused for a second to let his words sink in before saying, "Alright, go," and let go of Naruto.

Sasuke and Hinata jumped away into the trees, hiding themselves away in such a manner that they could still see Kakashi. Naruto though, had already made a move and flicked the kunai he'd still been holding at where he'd seen Kakashi tie the bell. Kakashi caught the handle just as the spike was about to cut through the rope. He said, "Well, you _are_ fast. Though I think that you might have the wrong idea," as he saw Naruto standing across from him. Then, he felt the odd balance of the kunai and glanced down at it and saw that, although it had the same colour and feel as the normal Konohan kunai, the design was from Takigakure. He thought, ' _So, he had more made, did he?_ '

Kakashi blinked as he saw a kunai fly just next to the one that he was holding at the bells again. Kakashi batted it away with the kunai in his hand and turned to look back at Naruto, saying, "Why would you try that _again_?" only to see a smirk before a spark of lightning appeared where the spinning kunai was before he saw Naruto appear in its place. Kakashi frowned and jumped away from Naruto, slashing at the blonde's arm to keep him away from the bells, only for him to swipe through the air as the kunai reappeared where it was, Naruto back where he started. Kakashi thought, ' _Hiraishin? No. that's not it. Not with that burst of lightning. Though in_ this _situation it's a good thing it is. If it_ wasn't _, he'd have a bell right now and_ I'd _look rather silly. I'll have to take a closer look at this kunai later,'_ and watched as Naruto drew two of the marked kunai. He said, "You have a very interesting technique there Naruto. Did you get it from that scroll?"

"No, Naruto grinned. "The Uzufūjin is mine alone."

' _Uzufūjin? He's certainly inherited his father's naming sense._ And _his ability with fūinjutsu apparently,'_ Kakashi thought as he got a look at the kunai's handle.

Naruto grunted as he glared at the kunai that Kakashi was holding. He thought, ' _Damn it! If only he'd let that one go, I could teleport to it, slash the cord, come back here, go back, grab them and then hightail it. As it is, all that will happen is that I'll swap places with_ him _!'_ Naruto sighed. ' _Well, I guess if it was that easy, it wouldn't be much of a test.'_ He said, "Alright then, Kakashi- _sensei_ , let's you 'n' me have a fair fight!"

While Naruto was thinking, Kakashi glared at the kunai that he was holding when he saw where Naruto's gaze was and thought, ' _Can he not teleport to this now? Or wait…'_ Kakashi remembered the earlier exchange. '… _Naruto swapped places with the kunai earlier…Then is it more 'it would be useless to teleport' rather than 'it can't be done'?_ ' He said, "Your jutsu's got one hell of a drawback Naruto."

Naruto grunted, stopping just before he made his move and taunted, "Yeah, well it's going to be _more_ than enough to beat _you_ with!" and made a handseal as he said, "Tajū Gen'ei Bunshin no jutsu!" and the clearing was flooded with clones of the blonde not-yet-shinobi.

While Naruto clashed with Kakashi, Sasuke thought, ' _What the heck_ is _this? It's like some kind of twisted nightmare! How the_ hell _did the_ dobe _get that fast? Wait…Kakashi said that it was a technique…_ and _that it had a drawback. But what was i…_ ' his thoughts were broken by the sound of leaves and twigs moving and breaking and he looked for the source to see Hinata, lying on the ground, completely unconscious with a bright red face and a goofy smile plastered on it,. Sasuke rolled his eyes and thought, ' _Girls!_ ' before turning back to the fight.

As the clones clashed with Kakashi, it became evident to him that four of the clones were hanging back. He thought, ' _So, the real one is hanging back to see what happens, is it, Naruto? Then in that case…_ ' Kakashi waited until some of the clones decided to all leap at him at once and substituted with one of the four and saw it disappear along with most of the clones in the heap. He thought, ' _One down, three to go,_ ' as he switched back into the throng.

From his branch Sasuke thought, ' _He can use the kawarimi jutsu on people! I'd never even_ think _of something like that, and he did it with the opponent like it was nothing!_ '

Kakashi did it again, but, this time, he got switched over to one of the outer clones immediately and was forced to switch back into the melee prematurely as a kunai just missed the cord attaching the bells to his belt. As he continued fighting the clone army he thought, ' _That was_ too _close there. If that was the first time he saw it, he wouldn't have be able to react to me doing it again so well, which means that he can probable do it too._ Not _a common skill, and_ certainly _not one taught in the academy. Yūgao must have taught him well. And here I'd thought that Sasuke would be the one that I'd need to watch out fo…!'_

Kakashi's thoughts all went out the window when he heard, "Gen'ei Tajū Kunai no jutsu!" and substituted with a log of wood this time, letting all of the clones get destroyed by themselves.

When the kunai had destroyed the clone army, Kakashi walked back out onto the field and said, "I suppose that I probably should have been expecting that at some point, since you are using a jutsu derived from that one." He thought, ' _Even so though, using_ that _many clones just as a diversion is a little…excessive. But, if he used it_ now _, then it was probably so I didn't try to switch out with_ him _next._ ' He said, "…but don't you think that using a jutsu like _that_ is a bit much? This _is_ just a test after all."

"Maybe so, but you _did_ say to come at you with the intention of killing you. So I figure it's a fair enough a tactic to use."

"Hmm…you might have a point there Naruto," Kakashi said, lifting his headband form covering his left eye as he thought, ' _If he's willing to use jutsu like_ that _, then I'd better take some precaution. I don't want to die after all._ '

XXXXX

In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen looked up from his crystal ball and asked, "So, did you know about this, Yūgao?"

"I knew that he could do it, yes. but not to that extent. That aside, Kakashi using his Sharingan, isn't that I bit unfair?"

"Naruto said it himself, in this, there _is_ no such thing as 'fair', despite what he said before that last clash."

"Even so though, I'd be more worried about Kakashi in this situation. After all, this tactic is just like…"

"I know," Hiruzen said. "That's probably _why_ Kakashi is using the Sharingan. He _was_ 'his' student after all."

"Hu-uhh?!" Iruka exclaimed, not sure what to make of the conversation, being the only chūnin in the room, and not subject to the knowledge of Naruto's heritage.

Hiruzen said, "The reason that Naruto used that jutsu probably _wasn't_ to try and cut those bells from Kakashi, or even to injure him enough to take them himself."

"What do you mean?"

"All those kunai on the field out there have probably been 'marked' with the kawarimi fūinjutsu that Naruto has been using to teleport around the way he has been."

"But that means that…"

"Naruto has control of the battlefield right now," Hiruzen finished.

Yūgao smiled and said, "This is a tougher fight than Kakashi was expecting."

Hiruzen remarked, "You know Yūgao, sometimes I wonder why you are so catty."

"Kakashi was rather mean when I first joined the ANBU. I need to take pleasure in his misery whenever I can. It _is_ so few and far between after a…urk!" Yūgao exclaimed as Naruto suffered the indignity of the One Thousand Years of Death and flew off into the river, rendering Hinata unconscious yet again.

XXXXX

Sasuke thought, ' _What the hell kind of jutsu was_ that _supposed to be? I thought that he was supposed to be a jōnin! An elite ninja! Even so though, the dobe deserved it. But, what_ was _that headband covering? It almost looked like a…but_ that's _not_ possible _! I_ knew _all of the Uchiha and_ he's _not one of them. So how? It must just be something similar to it. After all, there are dōjutsu that resemble the byakugan, so I guess it's not impossible. Even so…isn't that trap a little_ too _obvious?'_ Sasuke finished as he saw Kakashi set up a simple trap that even a first year academy student should see coming a mile…no. a million miles away.

Naruto slowly dragged himself out of the river, running low on chakra after not having breakfast and using his Uzufūjin so much. His eyes widened, seeing a bell on the ground. He thought, ' _A bell! Kakashi must have dropped it!_ ' and rushed over to it before hesitating, but it was too late and he was strung up by a rope and started cursing up a storm, reaching out for the bell, but it was just out of his reach, so opened his kunai pouch, thinking, ' _If I can just…!_ ' but, to his dismay, all of his kunai fell out of his pouch.

That was when Kakashi appeared and said, "What _were_ you _thinking_ , Naruto? I'd thought that _you_ of all people would have seen that that was a trap."

"I _did_ see it!"

"Then exactly _why_ are you strung up like that?"

Naruto grunted and said, "I _did_ , it was just too late."

Kakashi sighed and said, "A _ninja_ must be able to see underneath the underneath at _all_ times."

Naruto crossed his arms and sighed. He then grinned and said, "I'll show _you_ who needs to 'look underneath the underneath'!" as he tapped a seal on the underside of his forearm guard, releasing a kunai that he'd prepared earlier.

Seeing the kunai, Kakashi jumped away, but that was what Naruto wanted and he reached out with the kunai and Kakashi realised what he was doing and threw the kunai of Naruto's at the kunai Naruto was reaching out with, but it was too late and the kunai touched the bell, which was enough for what he wanted. Kakashi didn't realise though, and was satisfied when he heard and saw the kunai he'd thrown hit the one in Naruto's hand away. But, Naruto grabbed the kunai as it flipped in the air and flicked it spinning upwards, and teleported to it to get out of the trap, coming out of it with one hand on the ground. He tapped his other armguard twice, though Kakashi didn't see it, and grabbed the kunai and threw one of them at Kakashi and the other into the bush and teleported to Kakashi, gathering almost all of his remaining chakra as he did three handseals that Sasuke didn't recognise before saying, "Katon: Karura no jutsu," and breathed a flaming stream at Kakashi from close range, throwing one of the cloned kunai at the cord in a last ditch effort to get the bell from Kakashi as he jumped out of the way. When it didn't work, Naruto used the last dregs of his chakra to teleport to the kunai he'd thrown into the bush while Kakashi retrieved the bell that he'd used as bait.

As Kakashi retied the bell onto his belt, Sasuke bolted, realising _exactly_ what they'd gotten themselves into. Despite the dobe's surprisingly valiant efforts, Kakashi _still_ had both bells and they had none. _He_ had none. So they were headed back to the academy for sure at the rate that they were going. When he found a smallish clearing, he thought, ' _Alright, this is as good a place as I'm likely to get in this training ground,_ ' and went about setting up a swinging log trap. When he was done, he thought, ' _Okay, that's_ that _done, but it's probably not going to be enough. I need to set something up that will work_ after _he dodges that._ ' With that in mind, he opened his kunai pouch and, not looking, reached in and felt something strange. He thought., ' _What is…_ ' then he looked down and smirked before letting go of _that_ kunai and setting up his trap with most of his other kunai and shuriken.

XXXXXXX

 **A/N**

 **Attacks**

 **Naruto**

 _Tajū Gen'ei Bunshin / Multiple Phantom Clone_

The user streams their chakra throughout their body and forms the seals for the Gen'ei Tajū Kunai and, instead of focusing on the kunai, it makes duplicates of the person using the chakra flowing through the user's body. This uses the same method as the Kage Bunshin, but, due to how Naruto came about creating it, retains the Gen'ei moniker and lacks the memory transfer function

 _Gen'ei Tajū Kunai_ _/_ _Multiple Phantom Kunai_

After throwing a kunai at the target and forming the necessary hand seals, the user can create corporeal replicas of the kunai, turning a small amount of kunai into a large amount in an instant with which to bombard the enemy.

 _Uzufūjin / Whirling Wind God_

A fūinjutsu rendition of the kawarimi ninjutsu. This can be applied by the use of a pre-made tag, or inscribed with the user's chakra. Naruto includes a spark of lightning as a distraction.

 _Fūnyū no Jutsu / Enclosing Technique_

Using this technique, a wide variety of objects and even living things can be stored within scrolls, and can be released when the scroll is opened or meets a specific condition. It is possible to seal ninjutsu into a scroll rather than an inanimate object, person, or even chakra iteslf if the situation calls for it.

 _Kaifū no Jutsu / Unsealing Technique_

A technique used by shinobi to unseal what was sealed within a scroll, or, in some cases, a sheet of paper. There is a mass-release variant of this jutsu that will release many objects at once that uses a chakra amplification seal, limiting the amount of chakra needed to perform it.

 _Katon:_ _Karura / Fire Release:_ _Garuda_

The user breathes a long stream of intense fire, which forms into a flaming dragon. Naruto does _not_ have an affinity for fire release ninjutsu, so will be using this increasingly less as time goes on and he grows as both a ninja, and a person.

 **Kakashi**

 _Kawarimi / Substitution or Body Flicker_

With this technique, users replace their own body with some other object, generally with a block of wood, the moment an attack lands. However, a more advanced method lets the user forcibly switch with another person instead of an inanimate object.

 _Hiraishin / Flying Thunder God_

He didn't use it, but he did refer to Minato's space-time teleportation jutsu when comparing it to Naruto's technique upon first seeing it, but quickly realised that there were some readily identifiable differences between the two. Because of this, he easily figured out that Naruto's jutsu was using a fūinjutsu application of the Kawarimi no jutsu rather than a space-time fūinjutsu.

 **Sidenote**

After one of the attacks on his life, Naruto asked Hiruzen for some one-on-one training, but was denied, claiming that it would reek of favouritism, calling into question some of his other orders, which, as Hokage, could not be countenanced and would be viewed as treasonous. Unbeknownst to Naruto, it was because Hiruzen was under pressure from the council at the time for him to place Naruto under Danzō's care and tutelage in ROOT, which he was vehemently against. A week later, Naruto snuck into the shinobi library and searched through the scrolls until he saw a scroll with a swirl on it that told him of some of the history of the Uzumaki clan, and then started searching for everything that he could find on fūinjutsu. It was far from his last trip to the library.


	5. You Passed! Kakashi's Final Decision

Sasuke's fight went much the same way the anime depicted it, and Kakashi put Hinata in a genjutsu, showing her surrounded by many shirtless Naruto's. Just after she fainted, her face bright red, the alarm bell rang. Kakashi dispelled the genjutsu on her before using the Shunshin jutsu to get back to the clearing. When all three not-yet-genin got back to the central clearing, Kakashi said, "Well, I suppose I'll have to tie _one_ of you up…Ah!" Kakashi disappeared momentarily before reappearing where he was, Naruto tied up against the central pole.

Naruto exclaimed, "Hey! Why am Itied up, huh?"

"Because, Naruto, _you_ have the greatest misunderstanding of what a ninja is."

"Actually," Sasuke said, "a better question is why is _any one of us_ tied up?"

Kakashi looked at Sasuke and said, "What do you mean by that, Sasuke?"

Sasuke smirked and reached into his kunai pouch and brought out a bell. Kakashi blinked at the sight and said, "I don't know what you're trying to pull Sasuke, but lying like that isn't going to…"

"Hinata-chan," Naruto said, cutting through Kakashi's words.

"Yes…Naruto-kun?" Hinata said.

"Can you please make the ram and dog seals for me?"

Hinata hesitantly said, "H-hai…Naruto-kun," and did as requested.

Kakashi heard a 'pop' and felt the weight at his hip increase and looked down at the bells, only to see one bell and one kunai with a spike extending from it. He said, "What the…!?" and thought over the entire battle that he'd had with Naruto and didn't remember a single chance that he'd given Naruto to not only _get_ a bell, but also switch it out with a transformed kunai. He said, "When did you…?"

Naruto grinned and said, " _I_ didn't. You did it yourself."

"What…" then Kakashi remembered Naruto's taunt. He said, "Alright Naruto, how _did_ you do it?"

"Well, before the test began, I asked to see one of Sasuke's kunai, figuring that it would be a good idea to have an escape plan if need be. So, I marked it with my Uzufūjin seal and gave it back to him. Then I…"

"Speaking of which…" Sasuke interrupted. "Where _did_ you put it? I didn't see anything different about it at all."

"On the inside ring of the pommel," Naruto explained. After a pause he said, "Anyway…then, when you had me strung up, I used one of the kunai that I unsealed to switch it with the kunai that I'd given Sasuke back earlier by marking it with another seal."

"I hit that kunai away, Naruto."

"Actually, that hit a moment too late and the change had already happened. _Then_ , I released two kunai from my other armguard and placed a transformation seal on one of them, mixing in a gravity seal to lighten it so that you wouldn't be able to tell the difference."

"I see," Kakashi said, as he thought, ' _I didn't even see that second kunai. That was a rather annoying, but clearly successful, tactic._ ' He then turned to Sasuke and said, "Did you know of Naruto's plan Sasuke?"

"No. but I figured it out when I found one of his kunai mixed in with mine."

"Then why did you continue on trying to get a bell, surely you were aware that would already mean that you'd passed?"

"True, but then you would have figured out the ruse, and come at me even harder than you did. You _are_ a jōnin after all."

"I see. That _was_ a pretty brilliant plan you two. But, there's a problem."

"What's that?"

"There's only one bell," Kakashi stated as ominously as he could.

"That's true," Sasuke said. "However…" he flicked it to Hinata. "…you should have it, Hinata."

"Eh! But why? I'm just…"

Sasuke sighed and said, "I know how things are in the Hyūga. _You_ , clearly, are an outlier amongst them. So it's better that you pass this test than either of us."

"But…Naruto-kun was…"

Kakashi sighed and said, "Alright already. You three pass," and released Naruto with the escape jutsu. As he did, he said, "Oh, and Naruto, I suggest that you get rid of that spark from your Uzufūjin."

"Why?"

"Because, every time you used it, it told me exactly where you were going to appear. Why _did_ you include it in the first place?"

"Well, the Shunshin no jutsu uses some kind of a distraction, right? So I figured…"

"I see. But in the case of the Shunshin jutsu, the distraction is implemented where the user is _originally_." Kakashi paused to let that sink in before continuing on to say, " _Not_ where they are about to appear."

"I see. That makes sense," Naruto said. "I'll also have to do something about if the enemy _catches_ one of them too," Naruto snarkily said.

Kakashi smiled and said, "Do you mind if I hold onto this?" fingering the kunai tied to his belt.

"Eh, I don't care," Naruto said, shrugging his shoulder.

"Thank you," Kakashi said, as he cut the cord with one of his regular kunai. He then put them both into his kunai pouch. He said, "I'll see you outside the Hokage Tower at ten o'clock tomorrow."

Naruto asked, "Why? What are you doing now?"

Kakashi said, "There's some things that I need to attend to," and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto said, "I've _got_ to get him to teach me that."

Sasuke asked, "Why? You can teleport around easily enough as it is."

Naruto said, "You'd think so, wouldn't you?" in a thoughtful tone.

Surprised that it wasn't being used as a barb, Sasuke blinked and said, "Seriously though, how _do_ you do it?"

Naruto said, "Fūinjutsu," drawing a tag from his tool pouch. "Here, take a look." Sasuke looked at the marks, confusion written on his face. Naruto sighed and said, "If you don't get it, I'm not going to explain it to you."

"No no, that's not it."

"Then you _do_ understand it then?"

"No. That's not what I meant."

"Then what _did_ you mean?"

"When did you…no. Rather, _how_ , did you learn how to do this?"

"I alleviated some fūinjutsu books from the library."

"Some… _why_? What's the point of going to all that effort when you can just buy tags from the stores?"

Naruto said, "A few reasons, really. The most important of which is that the ones that I was getting were all hit or miss. Besides, do you really think that I could get _that_ at a store?" nodding at the seal that was now in Hinata's hands.

Sasuke said, "So what did you mean that you don't teleport around?"

"There is a branch of fūinjutsu that makes use of…I'll say warping effects, though even that is not a very good description, called Jikūkan. But that's still beyond what I can do at the moment. The Uzufūjin, is a fūinjutsu application of the Kawarimi jutsu that swaps the user with a marked object, like a tag or kunai."

"And those physical clones?"

"You remember when Iruka-sensei had to leave class in a rush two years ago."

"Yeah. What about it?"

"One of the kids in our class got it in his head that it would be a 'brilliant' idea to send me off to get some spoils left over from a battle that hadn't finished playing out yet. I found a kunai that had some paper attached to it and got embroiled in a game of keep-away with three kunoichi from some village. When it was all said and done, Iruka-sensei took me to see ol' man Hokage and he confiscated the kunai. Two weeks later, I broke into the tower and retrieved it and started training with it. Of course, it didn't really do too much to improve my grades at the academy."

' _I should think not,_ ' Sasuke thought, thinking on the weight imbalance that the kunai had had.

"Back to the clones though. The kunoichi all used a jutsu that they called Gen'ei Tajū Shuriken that split their thrown shuriken into a very large number of them. I just kept on trying to do it with the kunai that I got back until it worked and then applied the concept to my body instead of the kunai."

"And the fire style jutsu?"

"Same place."

"I see," Sasuke said. He considered his words for a while before saying, "Naruto…would you teach that to me?"

"Why the hell would I do that?"

Sasuke sighed and said, "I suppose that I probably deserve that."

"I'm not sure that there's much 'probably' about it."

Sasuke grunted and said, "I'm sure. But, at the end of the day, I don't think that you have a natural affinity for fire style jutsu."

"Why's that? It worked pretty good, didn't it?"

"Ye-ess…but with the amount of chakra that you used, you should have produced a stream about twice that size."

"Seriously?!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Yeah. Also, the length of time that you needed to craft it was too long as well."

Naruto sighed and said, "Yeah, well, I suppose that even I can admit that you might have a point there. But, at the end of the day, if I taught it to _you_ , and stopped using it myself, that would leave me with a couple of clone jutsu, and a broken fūinjutsu rendition of the Kawarimi jutsu."

"What about your other fūinjutsu?"

"Sealing tags and explosive tags. Like you said, both available at stores."

"Hmm…alright. How about this then, find out which element, or elements, you have an affinity with, and I'll go through my family's jutsu vault to see what they acquired and turn it over to you."

Naruto said, "Alright, I can work with that. But…how would we go about doing that exactly?"

"Flake that he is, Kakashi's still a jōnin. I'm sure he'd know some way of finding out."

"You know, I really don't like you right now."

"Why's that?"

Naruto sighed and said, "I doubt you'd understand. In any case, do you want a quick lesson on how to make explosive seals?"

"No. Come to think of it though, there is _one_ think that I'm curious about."

"What is it?"

"The kunai that you gave me before…"

"What about it?"

"When I was holding it, it seemed like the only difference between it and the regular kunai that you can get here was the spike near the base of the blade."

"Yeah. The guy at the Yellow Dragon said that a rush job would end up with essentially a misshapen standard kunai. But, at the same time, the only real difference between them and the one that I was training with, is the weight. The aerodyne-whatsits aren't really affected that much."

"You remember that class about the aerodynamics of weaponry?" Sasuke exclaimed, shocked as he had thought that Naruto had been asleep at the time.

"I was paying attention, but the more technical things, I just couldn't get my head around."

XXXXX

As the new teammates started to talk, Kakashi arrived in a swirl of leaves in the office of the Hokage. He said, "Hokage-sama."

"So," Hiruzen said, "how'd they do?"

"Naruto was certainly surprising."

Hiruzen smiled and said, "Yes. He always has been, hasn't he?"

"Yūgao taught him well."

"Hardly."

"What do you mean? He's got her marks all over him."

"Yūgao was watching with Iruka and I questioned her about it. According to her, she only showed him that you could switch places with a person when she did it with him during one of the attacks. Other than that, it was only a few comments here and there when he showed her something that he'd come up with."

"Is that so?" Kakashi asked as he thought, ' _That's…going to be rather problematic. If Sasuke starts to feel inferior, then…'_ none of the shinobi in the room saw it, but Kakashi bit his lower lip as he thought on what he should do to train his team, having planned to focus on getting Sasuke to the level that he would be able to pass the first Chūnin Exam that he could submit them for, and then split his attention between Hinata and Naruto, who he had thought to be on somewhat of a similar level to each other in terms of combat ability. Now he'd have to at least attempt to split his attention three ways, though he'd first have to do something about the kunoichi under his command if they ever wanted to go on even a C-Ranked mission.

Kakashi sighed, prompting Hiruzen to ask, "What seems to be the problem, Kakashi?"

"It's nothing," Kakashi said, waving over his shoulder as he left the office.

When Kakashi was gone, Hiruzen said, "Yūgao."

The purple haired kunoichi appeared from the wall, saying, "Yes, Sandaime?"

"I want you to watch over Team Seven's training. If Kakashi starts focusing on one student over the others, I want you to tell me if Kakashi starts to focus on what will be beneficial for one student over the others, no matter which.

"Hai, Sandaime-sama."


End file.
